BEFORE TOMORROW COMES
It's only been about a month - does this mean I'm getting better with my updates? I know my friend over at Hardflip continues to go longer in between posts and he actually has several people working on his site / blog. I guess I shouldn't feel so bad in this regard.
My New Year's Resolution is to try and stop using "THAT" so much in my writing and in my emails and just generally in conversation. I just lean on the word too much and I need to stop using it as a crutch.
Still a lot going on. I've been training to learn CSS and get used to being in a Design Support role. This is where I have to learn how to cut a site up and then code it in HTML and CSS. It's been fun so far. I've only done 4 sites thus far, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. CSS is a tremendous monster to get a hold of. You really have to know how everything works with each other. It can get out of hand very quickly. I'm confident I have some good trainers and people around me who know what the fuck they're doing - which helps A LOT.
I also pulled another perfect month for my goals. I actually hit every month this year for my goals and had a perfect year. I have yet to determine if this is a good or a bad thing considering I've just unexpectedly raised my own bar for next year. At least I have pretty big challenge ahead of me for 2009. It should be fun. I am right where I want to be.
My son is here for a few more days. It's tough when you have a baby and a restless 13 year old. My GIF doesn't want to get stuck with the baby and I want to spend time with my son, so it's tough trying to make it all work properly and where everybody stays happy.
Got the email today about summer soccer and I will be regretfully declining the invitation to play this year. I want to go back to concentrating on mountain biking (having a $3,000 bike sit in your garage is NOT cool) and playing some golf with some of my co-workers. It will be my first summer without soccer in about 15 years. I just think it;s time to move on and start something new.
I will of course continue to play hockey. When our last game ended, my friend (who NEVER compliments me) told me in the locker room I played the best defense he's ever seen me play. I just hope I don't lose all that karma over the holidays. At least I'm finally starting to feel like a defensemen after coming back from playing center. I don't score too much, but I like shutting guys down and starting the counter attack.
I'm also going to make time to work on my new site which will unveil my personal internet marketing company. It will take a while, but in the end, it will be worth it.
Lots of stuff to get accomplished for 2009.
Just for record, I do this every year, so here's my yearly rundown of the things that happened this year:
Of course there are some many areas which need to be reviewed, so here's a vertible menagerie of stuff to wade through:
2008 month by month review
2008 sports in review (youtube style no less) My favorite was finally seeing KG (Kevin Garnett) finally get his first NBA ring.
Alright - I'm sure I'll think of more to write come Friday since I'll be here and the majority of people will not - which will lead to me to have a LOT of downtime.
Till then folks. . .
SEACREST EWT!!
THANKSGIVING HAS COME AND GONE. .
And it turned out a lot better than I thought. My son stayed at his grandparents (my parents) and I saw him three days he was here. I still wish his ankle had been fixed so we could go snowboarding. It would have been the earliest I've been out in a LONG LONG time. Like I said, it would have been nice, but I have to understand having his ankle heal properly is more important in the long term.
WHY DO PEOPLE MAKE THE DECISIONS THEY DO?
I always wonder sometimes why people make the decisions they do. I have a friend who does some web stuff and a year ago, he took a big corporate job downtown and hated every minute of it. He posted about it all the time on his site (which shall remain nameless) and finally after a year - he quit. He said he wasn't cut out for the "corporate" life and had already taken a job at a smaller company.
I'm not going to bag on him making his decision, but clearly some people don't need a lot of money to be happy - which is admirable. What I can say is I spent a long time working for small businesses and I never made much money, while I basically ran the place and the owner reaped all the rewards of my hard work. This was something I always resented. Not to mention, I felt like I knew more about the industry in which we both worked,and here I am, still making a pittance for salary and commission.
Several years ago, I felt like I needed a lot more security and saw the writing on the wall in my own industry that changes were taking place and unless I did something, I was going to be out of work - which is not cool. I actually sought out a corporate gig because I felt working for a larger company would give me a stable income with a buttload of benefits.
After almost four years and three positions, I think I finally found where I really want to be. I was successful in my main goal of getting out of sales, and had a career change at *gulp* 38. In less than 3 years, I dug myself out of a sales career, changed positions twice and have arrived at somewhere where I feel challenged every day, in a fast paced environment, with some of the smartest people I've ever worked with. It's a nice perspective when you're not the smartest guy in the room all the time.
Like I said, I don't know why this person opted to get out of his corporate gig, only he will ever know, but he must have felt like he could not find happiness doing the corporate gig during the day and then doing what he loves after his day job. Maybe his friends were harassing him about it, I know when you're a skateboarder, it's pretty uncool to work for the "evil empire" (whatever that evil empire might be) and I've plenty of people laud my decision to work at a large corporation.
In any case, I will never know what motivated him to quit, but I do hope he does find happiness in whatever he does decide to do in the future.
AM I FINISHED WITH CONSPIRACIES. . . . ?
I was thinking this afternoon about how long its been since I've been interested in conspiracies. Maybe its because I don't have much time anymore. In my old job at Mobile Cellular, I could surf the internet all day and do whatever I wanted. I was on several message boards which kept my interest most of the day.
I famously gave up the ghost on the one conspiracy I followed the longest, after a long time of thinking about it and what might or might not be happening. In the end, it never really mattered to me, and I found once I pulled back a bit, I found the people on the above board to be completely fucking insane. The paranoia of these people was pretty intense and pretty shocking.
In any case, I concluded today that conspiracies only have so much life, until they run their course and then what do you do? Where do you go from there? It's like a dead end, nothing else left to do except let people decide what really happened or who was actually behind whatever it is your investigating. In short, it gets boring pretty fast.
SO WHAT IS INTERESTING TO ME NOW?
A LOT of new things. I've set up one of my desktop computers with a Linux system last year (after my laptop took a crap and stopped working) and I've been learning ever since. I consider myself a pretty creative person so I've been looking into how to change the theme on my Mandriva / KDE environment. The one site I lean on a LOT is KDE Look. They have a lot of cool stuff and a hoard of good developers.
I'm also trying to do some low level web development on it as well - just as another challenge. I say its a challenge because its hard to find comparable developer software for Linux, and more specifically Mandriva.
What else? Just more graphic design stuff with Photoshop and Illustrator. Things where I can use my creativity to make cool things.
I might be burned out on soccer, but at this moment, I'm watching Juventus play Reggina in the snow. Juve is up 3-0, late in the second half. Even though I still watch a LOT of games, the bug to play still isn't there. I feel like I've closed the book on my career and want to focus on other things which I've taken an interest in.
WHAT ELSE?
Oh yeah, about a month ago, I got a call from my sister about where the project to re-do her website was going. After trying to wrangle a few guys to do the site, I was pretty disappointed with the results. I guess I shouldn't have expected something amazing since all the guys were working for free and they all had several freelance projects which they should be working on and which had paying clients. In the end, I scrapped it and was moving on when she called me and was talking about how her and her partner were going to close up shop and call it a day for their business.
She was giving it 6 months and then she was moving on. I figured this would be a good opportunity for me to use my savvy business skills and rescue her business. Problem is, she's not very motivated. I know if it was me, I would be working my ass off to make it work, but my sister is a different person than I, and I needed to realize this. I'm going to see her tonight and she's supposed to have some figures for me so I can determine how much monthly overhead they have, and develop a business plan which will work going forward. We'll see if she comes to my parents with the info I need. I know the business is already $25K in the hole, and that's a BIG hole to dig out of, but her partner is responsible for half of the debt, which at least takes care of a large part of the debt - which is good news. Like I said, we'll see.
For now. . this is all I have. .
Sorry, no pics or vids. . just some rambling on a crappy day.
SEACREST EWT.
A CONSPIRACY NO MORE. . .
Wow it was a long weekend. Two VERY long calls with my son and his Mother, and I finally got him moving in the right direction. We'll see how the reception at the airport goes. He can be pretty chilly when he wants to.
In the end, I had to dig in and play the hard ass in all this. I always think the more time I have to spend with him, the better off I'll be and sometimes you just can't let the other side win and give up and give in to let them get what they want. It also helps when you hold all the aces at the table.
The rest of the week should be pretty smooth (all things considered) and we'll have some good free time before he heads out Friday morning.
I was planning on going snowboarding with him, but his recent ankle surgery, and long recovery time has put that notion in the back seat for now. It would have been nice to get out early this season, but. . .whatever, I'll get over it.
TIME FOR A NEW CHALLENGE. . .
Okay, so I dropped onto the development team like a commando in the dead of night. I'm sure some of my co-workers woke up and were like, "Who the FUCK is this guy?" and here we are a year later and it's been pure paradise. Oh sure, has all been tea and crumpets? Not always, but my co-workers are some of the coolest people I know. I got a great spot, and my two cube mates (Vah Jay Jay and Tief) have made a funny and fairly easy transition. Of course, being, "the new guy" opened me up to some artful hazing, but I took it all in stride. This is the place I finally feel like I WANT to be here and help the team as best I can. And that's no Bull Durham rip off quote.
After a year though, I need a new challenge. I've just found out I will have it come December when I get to learn CSS. I deal with CSS on a daily basis and am well familiar with it, and I've started to do some development projects outside of work with CSS, but this it going to be completely different. The one thing I need to learn to do before I feel like a "real" developer is how to take a PSD design and cut it up into vaild CSS code. Likewise, learning how to design a full site in Photoshop has always been a goal of mine. The ability to combine both and be good at it is one of my long term goals.
The following months are going to be another barn burner.
I'll hit yah back up on the flip side after my son goes back to school.
In the meantime, here's another couple of vids for you to enjoy:
I've always been a skateboarder fan, and a HUGE fan of Plan B. If you don't already know, Plan B formed after H-Street skateboards went defunct and Mike Ternasky (God rest his soul) passed away.
This is the trailer for their video - Live after Death which I think came out sometime in 2007. Anyways, this is the second trailer, you should also check out the Part 1 of this on youtube - its INSANE as you can clearly see in this clip:
The second vid I'm pretty sure hockey fans will like. My soccer career is all but a smoldering bit of ashes right now. After the outdoor season ended and the I played the first session of indoor, I just had no desire to play anymore. It was as if a ghost had finally left my body. Sure, I still love to watch the games on TV, but I have no more desire to play. Dunno what happened to kill my desire to play, but there's not a single bone in my body which wants to play anymore. Instead, I've chosen to play hockey on Wednesdays and am loving it and feel like I'm actually getting better each week. I just feel a lot more confident on the puck and feel like I'm a much better defensemen now. Anywho, hockey is where its at right now, so here's a good one:
Alls I got for right now. . .
Seacrest EWT.
I'M NOT GOING TO SAY IT ANYMORE. .
All my posts have been few and far between. Free lance jobs, home life, a new daughter and all kinds of other stuff have all but extinguished my blogging. Right now there's so much going on - the election, my son skipping out for Thanksgiving, all the drama surrounding him skipping Thanksgiving, my Mom striking out on her own and opening her own Pilates studio, trying to build a site for my brother in law and getting back into shape.
Lots and lots to write about - just no time to sit down and get all down on paper. What's a guy to do? I was going to try and just leave my Blogger page open on a separate monitor and if something popped into my head, I could write it down. That didn't work so well considering I do web development and I utilize both of my monitors, so in no time, the window with my blog would get closed. Oh well, let's get to the important stuff!!
THE ELECTION
Much to the chagrin of my Mother, I voted for John McCain. My mother and I had some pretty heated debates about Obama and why I was voting Republican. I basically told her it was because of how bad the press have been skewering Bush and giving Obama a free pass on everything from his relationship with Tony Rezko to his affiliation with a radical dictator in Kenya.
I'm pretty sure people voted for Obama for change. But voting simply for change for change's sake isn't a good idea. Now we're faced with a president who is going to raise the capital gains tax, increase taxes on anybody making over $250,000 (which interestingly enough changed from 250, then down to 200, then down 150 and then another Democrat actually said 120,000) per year.
It should be no surprise that the market has been tanking ever since he's been elected. Right now, we're supposed to be in a recession and here he is wanting to RAISE taxes. When asked directly if he would raise taxes next year, he never answered the question. Even his chief of staff couldn't answer the question!
I'll give him 4 years, but what he's already doing now, I don't think he's going to last very long. People are moving their money out of the market right now in order to avoid losing money when he increases the capital gains tax. Not to mention the disastrous consequences of raising taxing during a recession. Oh well, only time will tell I guess.
MY SON, HIS MOTHER, AND THE GREAT THANKSGIVING DAY CONSPIRACY.
Here's the deal:
My son wants to stay out in Washington DC to have Thanksgiving with his Mom and Step Dad and not come here like he's supposed to. Both have conspired to make it happen and now I'm left to play my aces. I've already purchased the ticket and now just have to wait until she violates the court order and then I'll have to bring her for mediation and then I'll have to get my money back for the ticket.
The worst part about this is she has HIM lying to me now telling me he doesn't know where he's going to be for Thanksgiving. They both must think I'm some kind of idiot not to figure out what's going on.
It's too bad, she can't open her eyes and understand what she's doing by letting our 13 year old son make his own decisions. BAD very very BAD. Talk about setting a bad precedent. My son has no legal standing to make ANY decisions himself, but suddenly its convenient for her to have him make his own decisions, so then she says its between me and him. Really!? I'm your fucking father, you get on the plane and you be here then - this is not a discussion, and its NOT YOUR decision - period, end of story.
Just another nail in the coffin. I really wonder what's going to happen when he turns 18. I'll no longer be financially responsible and I believe all these battles are going to have a net negative effect on me. I honestly don't know what he's going to do or who he's going to want to live with. I want to continue the relationship with him, but after so much time, my connection to him is fading. I feel like this is what his Mom wants. After all, it's what she's done his whole life - just put more time and space between me and him. It's like she's always attempted to keep me at arms length from him. I'm just hoping one day he'll figure it out. right now, the only thing I am to him is a cash register. He just calls when he wants something. Maybe it will change, maybe it won't. This is why I wonder what our relationship will be over the next few years.
I've been contemplating sending her email about the all the shit that's been going on the last 13 years just to get a lot of it off my chest, but somehow, I just don't think it will have any effect.
Oh well FUCK HER.
For now I've quit soccer and am just playing Hockey. I've been getting up at 5:30am and working out before I go to work. It's been about 4 weeks and I'm seeing some decent results. My Dad said he noticed it in my forearms, that was cool.
What else? I found a good template site online and built my Mom's website (http://www.pilatesonthehill.com/) it was a rush job since she needed it up and running right away so I just tweaked the CSS and HTML and BAM! There you have it. I'm almost done designing my brother in law's site and will post it when I get a chance. It's a flash site and I think will turn out pretty cool.
The nice thing about my freelance work is child support isn't taken out so my son's mother can't get her little grubby paws on it. This very simple thing makes me so happy I'm getting over her.
Instead of a picture of the day (note to self: DO NOT hotlink images unless you want a picture of big dick on your blog) I have to post this video. It's an old one, but as I was driving home from Hockey this week, it was around midnight and there was a fine mist in the air and I had Perfecto on Tour bumpin through my speakers and I was totally zoning out, thinking about all kinds of deep stuff.
So this is what it felt like, with the lights drifting by, and the mist in the air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIc8LxcXFk0
After I start thinking about it, I could almost hear Phil singing in the background. I felt like I was running towards some unknown destiny. It was a spooky, uneasy feeling.
Till then. . .
OUT
LOTS OF NEW STUFF HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!!
Where to start? Some quick blurbs maybe??
1) I started playing Golf again. Not that I ever did seriously, but (here comes another soccer reference) since I won't be playing soccer next year, golf is a logical fill in - right? Sure. got a new driver and its already made all the difference. I'm bombing it about 250 on the fly, straight away, which is pretty awesome I think. Been to the range several times with my Dad which is cool because it gives us time to spend together which we really haven't had in a while.
2) Whoah! Another soccer season has started in the Premiership. Lots of new faces, new places and in the Serie A, I was shocked to see some premiership faces come over to the Italian side. My favorite Norwegian Jon Arne Risse has joined AS Roma and will hopefully bring some stability to their back line. I'm hoping to see some of his thunderous left on action on Sundays. Another suprise was to see Jose Mourinho finally come out of hiding and end up at Inter Milan. Everybody is waiting to see who's coming over from Chelsea to play for him again. I guess Lampard is already ruled out, but you never know about a mid season transfer!!
Of course my Reds return with a very strong lineup, but will be hampered the first half of the season with Ronaldo's knee surgery and Tevez still out and Rooney not playing to 100% - it could get out to a sketchy start. So is a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford to Newcastle sketchy? Yeah, I think so.
Nuff said. . . anyways. . .the sniper of London will return soon though, have no fear!
Not much else is going on other than I want a bigger monitor at home for my upcoming desing projects. I big CRT pig isn't cutting it anymore.
Oh yeah, another big news item was my old stab in the back teammate PK calling to tell me this the last season for our Manchester soccer team. I think he was about three years too late. The past few seasons they've been playing in an upper tier for their outdoor and have gotten run pretty bad every season. I kept good tabs on them and they were always at the bottom for their indoor league and then when outdoor started, they never did very well. This year I think they were 2-11-4. Not a fun team to play for. I'm almost thankful he treated me like shit so I wouldn't have to endure those past seasons of getting lit up every game. Trust me, there's no pleasure in that.
The one thing I will take away is I was a key player when the team was in its heyday. Back in the mid to late 1990's I was a terror on the left side of the pitch. Man, those were the days. Our team took so many league titles (both indoor and outdoor) and so many tournaments it was insane - we totally OWNED all the Fargo leagues. We went four complete seasons without losing a league title, it was awesome. Anyways, it had to die, everything dies sooner or later - no matter how long to try to keep it alive. I think this team died a long time ago, PK just finally put it out of its misery. Good riddence, I'll pour out some BLD for ya brother.
My son leaves next Tuesday to go back to school. We chipped in and got him some new boots and some shinguards. Of course HIS MOM couldn't do it. She always complains they're poor, but something tells me she's up to her old tricks again. I know how she works.
Anyways, enough about her. You know I could go on and on, but won't right now.
Okay, okay, so I think we're all caught up right now. . . . . . .
LATE
FREE TIME MEANS ITS TIME TO UPDATE!
I had some extra time, so I thought I might tackle some of the topics I touched on in my last post. I only have about 30 minutes, so we'll see how much we can get accomplished before I have to bail out.
1) My son came up for a week after getting his foot operated on. He has something called hyperpronation in his ankle and after several years, it was starting to takes its toll on his ankles. They needed to repair both of his ankles so they got in both ankles before he came up. We had about two weeks before we were going to the Dells (even after our scenic" lake emptied). A few days before we were going to go, we went to go see "Wanted" (which was an ok movie, I wasn't impressed at all, but I think my son liked it). He shouldn't have been walking on it, but told me it felt ok. Of course, about 1am he called his Mom and told her he could feel the stint in his ankle. She came over the next day (thankfully, she was still in town) and got the instructions from the doctor on what to look for. It was pretty bad, she said he would need to come back so they could re-operate and move the stint back into the proper place. So that was that. About a week or so, then he was gone for the summer - which really bummed me out. We left a few days later for our vacation to the Wisconsin Dells. It was a great week and I got to take in several water parks. I know I would have enjoyed it a TON more if could've come with. Oh well, I told him next year we'll go again and then we can both enjoy it.
2) The not so glorious end of my soccer career? Yeah, after having one of the guys on another team punch me in the face, I sat down and did some serious soul searching. I decided I have to much to lose to have some idiot put in a hospital for any duration of time. The guy barely grazed me, but it was a wake up call. So no more outdoor, but I'm still going back and forth on playing indoor. Simply because I'm much better at playing indoor and I tend to score quite a bit more. Another indoor session is starting so we'll see soon enough. The other major factor was just trying to stay healthy on a week-to-week basis. It just alwasy seemed like I was nicked up, bruised, tweaked, or just plain sore. I think at 37, it was an easy decision to walk away from the outdoor game.
Time to fly - more later!!
Updated - 08/22/08
One brief note before we get back into it again. . .
A) My birthday came and went htis week and it appears I survived another year. It actually turned out to be a good year (thus far). A job change and some other major life changes have me enjoying life and still dumbfounded I am where I am considering my bleak past (which has been well documented here) and morbid nature I have about everything.
Alright. . more updates. . .
3) Oh yeah, the construction has really picked up the last few weeks. It's been a dirt road outside of our house for so long, I wasn't sure we'd have asphalt before the snow started falling. That all changed today. Not only was our driveway put back together (exposed aggregate trim and all) but we got new curbs (which we did not have before) and now some fresh blacktop. It was nice to finally park in my garage again. It was funny to hear the neighbors finally enjoying getting out and walking in the neighborhood. It seemed all the BS we put up with for so long might actually be worth it. Of course the other major road project is still giving me headaches and slowing me down on the way to work - so the bitching aint over yet!!
4) Being a developer totally kicks ass. I'm learning so much and just trying to absorb it all right now. I'm getting a LOT faster and finally have a decent system to march through my integrations. The real challenge now is to try and pick up design support which is the cutting and coding of sites designed in Photoshop. Once I learn this, the sky is the limit. I've been checking out some tutorials online and am also interested in using my Linux machine for doing some design work. We'll see. I also know my manager has told me I have incredible drive and was a great hire. I've really meshed well with the group and feel like I'm really at home with all the cool stuff I'm learning and finding out about. When you have so many who are plugged into the web - I mean REALLY plugged into the web, there's so much cool stuff out there!!! What I really want to do is get my freelance stuff going soon. I have some projects I want to start up, but finding time right now is hard. Looks like something is going to get sidelined in order to so this - we'll see.
5) Oh shit, changing my blog. Yeah, I've had a few templates, but nothing ever really jumped out at me. Now that I have some programming experience, I might actually try and design a template. Again, finding the time is the key. I might just go Tesla on it and stay up for a few days on end till I get the thing done - who knows. I have a ton of ideas so we'll have to wait and see what happens, no promises!!
6) Mountain biking? *sigh* I think I might have to take a few days off to get this done. I JUST pumped up the tires on my bike this Tuesday and took a few laps in the driveway. Man do I miss riding. After next winter, it will be back near the top of my list since Soccer will be out of the question.
Well, that;'s about it for right now - I'm going to blast out another quick post about some other stuff still on my mind.
LATE
LAST POST 6/21?? HERE'S ANOTHER FLYBY POST
Once again I'm going to have to leave people hanging on this one. It's been over 30 days since my last post and the last time I said I was going to try and make time to write more frequently. This is failure #23,598 and counting. My advice? Don't get old, your time becomes so expendable, so quickly, you're left with little time for yourself.
Anyways, I could go on all day, but have to throw out a few topics I NEED to write about in the coming days (or for as often as I've been updating, weeks):
1) My son getting his foot operated on on again, going home early from summer vacation, then us going to Wisconsin Dells without him. Fun trip, great time - will do it again for sure.
2) The "traumatic" ending my glorious soccer career. At least I'm going to stop playing outdoor for right now, I'm still debating playing indoor.
3) The continued construction by house and how much I fucking hate the City of Minnetonka
4) How my career as a developer is going thus far. . .7 months in.
5) The redesign of my blog and how I want to change and what I need to know in order to that.
6) Me wanting to mountain bike more and *gasp* play more golf next summer. Oh yeah, and start to work out more - I'm starting to feel tired and weak all the time - not good.
Of course each of these could take up an entire post and I might just handle that way, but we'll see how much I can done between now and the weekend.
Anyways, I gotta get back o the grind.
Seacrest - EWT.
30+ DAYS IN BETWEEN POSTS NOT CUTTING IT.
There's something about thinking about something to write and then there's actually doing it. Right now, I tend to do very well with the former, and I'm having heaps of trouble with the latter. Take for instance, this past week. All kinds of cool things happened, but I was powerless (aka LAZY) to actually get up the nerve to go to my computer and write. I think it has a lot to do with my set up right now. I got a newer monitor some time ago, and that went on the "newer" P.O.S. machine we got with Vista. I told my gif Vista sucks, but she gave me the old, "Well, everybody will soon be using it, so having it now will help soften the learning curve for later." Oh really? NOBODY wants, needs, or uses Vista by choice. Microsoft also stopped giving people the option to get new computers with XP instead. Lemme tell ya folks, it's a TOTAL hog. My other machine (The one I'm using right now) is a Linux Mandriva machine and it runs like buttah. It has half the RAM as my Vista machine and runs three times as fast. I'm still learning how to do a lot of stuff, but most of it is pretty straight forward and easy.
Of course, my Linux system got usurped for the new monitor, so I'm trudging along with an old 19" CRT monitor. It's not the best, but it gets the job done. Which brings me to my next point. I like my Linux system, but hate the monitor. I hate my Vista system, but the monitor rocks. And no, I've already been warned not to change the monitor because my gif uses the Vista system, so that's not a solution. Remember I said I don't like the enviornment my computers are in? I gotta come up with somethign better and more condusive to harness my creative juices. I used to have a laptop, but I don't want to be on the couch coding web sites. I think the solution is to get something like this - something (gasp) more like my cube at work. I want to get either two monitors (like at work - 22" & 19") or just one large (24"+) monitor. I can get two 19" monitors for about $400.00, and one large one (26"+) would run about $700.00 and up. Obviously, getting dual 19's would be more cost effective, but what about space?
My thought is have a dedicated work area for myself. Something away from what my current set up is like, so when I go there - its to work - period.
In the meantime, I'm going to use my Linux machine to do my web development stuff. Hopefully ti will be adequate to do what I want. If not, I may have to man up, get a new system, and a TON of software. The big three are Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Adobe Flash. OF course there are lower cost alternatives I can use when I'm running a Windows OS, but if you want to build the best, you should have the best - right?
Enough of my bantering about my puters - now for the good stuff.
This week I had dinner with my Dad. We were supposed to go hit a bucket of balls, but it got too late too fast and so we settled for dinner at Fuddruckers. It was a great time and my Dad never ceases to amaze me. I swear the time we have together is so precious for me. I always learn something new from these stories, and I'm glad he's comfortable telling them to me. As I've said before, I've never really known that much about my Dad, so hearing these stories are just so awesome. When I was growing up, it was always about me and my sister, he never sat around and bragged he was making millions of dollars doing what he was doing - he always focused on us and left whatever stories about his life to the side. Now, I'm finally getting to hear these stories and its absolutely amazing for me.
After dinner we were riding back to my parents house and he started telling me how he got involved in computers and how it was really an accident. He had spent several years at the University of Minnesota working on an applied mathematics degree and then trasnferred to St. Cloud State to finish his degree. One day his roommate came in and asked him if he knew anything about computers. Now, this was in early 1970's so computers was something nobody knew about. He told him nothing and then his roommate asked him if he wanted to learn something and said St. John's (down the road in Collegeville) was giving a class on computer programming. They took the class and didn't think much of it till several months later one of their Calc teachers asked if anybody knew anything about computers. Of course they both raised their hands and soon they were teaching classes and showing everybody how to program. Pretty funny huh?
He also told me another story about how he fumbled his way into sales - which is pretty funny as well. Now, I know today my Dad is an all star salesmen and could as one person said about him, "He could sell gum in the lockjaw ward at bellevue hospital", he'e THAT good at sales. In the mid 1970's, it was a different story. He was working for Control Data Corporation at the time as an analyst. You should also realize Control Data was one of the first companies to sell super computers. One day, of his golf buddies Bob Larson (who later went on to open several Neveda Bobs Golf shops) asked him if he ever considered going into sales. HE said not really, but he knew the guys who were in sales, were driving all the BMW's, Csdillac's and Mercedes out int he parking lot and he wouldn't mind making enough money to buy a new car. Well, within a day, his manager called him and told him he was now a sales person and to move his stuff out if his analyst office and into his new sales office. Then he was told he get the files from Bob for the accounts which were in his territory. After doing this, he kinda sat on his hands, not knowing what to do since nobody told him. He went back to his manager to ask me what he was supposed to do. To whcih his manager responded by yelling at him to call the accounts, go meet with them and then try and sell them some equipment. He thought to himself, "What the fuck did I just get myself into." Even funnier? He was working for several months before they sent him to an actual sales training class. The other trainees were shocked to know he already had his territory (for several months) and was already doing a lot of what they were being trained to do. He was the rock star of the group and everyone grilled him for what it was really like out in the field.
Of course the rest is history. He went down as one of the most successful salespeople in the companies history and landed several of the largest contracts. His single largest sale was to then energy company NSP (Northen States Power) now Excel Energy, for $42 million dollars. It took over 6 years to close and was a groundbreaking software advancement for them and many of the components of the system are still in use today.
In any case, it was a great dinner and his stories are always well worth the $20.00 I put up for dinner.
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't say I'm glad I got out of sales a few years back, but was thinking about the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. It's the ultimate sales movie and just shows how brutal being a sales person can be. I'll always be proud of the achivements of my father. He was an amazing sales person in his prime and funny, he continues to ply his trade, even now, in his late 60's.
This is the scene that crashed a thousand sales careers before they even got started - and yes, I've had some manger's like the one Alec Baldwin portrays amd I've known evern more sales people just like him.
ENJOY this one boys and girls and remember: COFFEE IS FOR CLOSERS!!!
I have a TON more to cover, but for now, this is good enough.
LATE
IS SUMMER HERE YET??
WOW, there is soooooooo much going on right now:
Soccer - new team (St. Paul Celtics) and we're off to a killing. First two games we put in 16 goals and gave up ZERO. We have a rock solid team that's very young and very good. This summer is going to be FUN.
Work - The day has finally arrived where I finally feel like I'm in the zone. I can cruise through my integrations with ease and I'm asking few if any questions of the guys around me, which I feel like is a good sign. I feel like I actually KNOW enough to do everything and do it quickly and efficiently.
Home Life - It's like anything. Good days and manageble days. Its hard for me to say there's bad days since I cherish so much where I am in life.
Everything Else - Cody wants to come for four weeks and wants to stay home all day. I'm still going back and forth on ironing out all the details for him and what will be expected of him. I guess I wasn't expecting him to be here for the full four weeks. I know we're going to the Wisconsin Dells and a co-worker has already given me a good tip on the place he usually stays which he like a lot. Summer's coming fast so we gotta get moving on this one.
Softball - I think it was a mistake to sign up for Softball with my neighbor. I'm playing, but often feel like I could be doing something else. Its my own fault for telling him last summer I'd play. I've done pretty well even though our team is still 0-2. I try not take it too serious, its only for fun - right?
Two other things:
I was thinkinig of my friend D the other week. Its painful to read her emails since I know she's having a rough go of it right now. Its been a brutal few years. She's getting older, wants to desperately have kids and her medical issues are preventing her from really living life like she would.
It makes me wonder how ambitious I should be when I compare her life to mine. I feel her suffering in my soul. Its not something I can easily shrug off like I do most things. Then I think I really do have life by the ass, and every night I go to bed, I pray for her to get better and ask God to be her sheppard and watch over her. I still feel her spirit all the time. She says the D I knew so many years is gone, but I know someday soon she'll take flight like she's always meant to. It gives me goosebumps to think of her and the energy we share since we're soul mates. As much as I've had to let go of the notion of us being together, I know she's always with me.
Whoah, so what else is going on? I went to the Minnebar conference for developers and got some really good information about developer tools and how to handle my freelance work. I was sad I ahd to be abck at 1:30 and missed a lot more of the good stuff.
I joined Twitter and am having fun with that so far.
Oh well, its 4pm and time for me to kill the power and head home. I might be on later to try and finish off this post or add another shorter post with some other interesting stuff.
Till then sportsfans!!
(sorry, in too much of a hurry for a pic of the day)
CATCHING UP ON OLD POSTS
I had to laugh this morning as I was going through the last couple of posts I had and one of them was where I very briefly wondered who I would vote for. Well, that was way back in January and I was hoping to back Mitt Romney. In two months, McCain sealed the deal and wrapped up the nomination. On the Democratic side of the things, Hilary is still fighting tooth and nail with Obama to get the nomination. Most people have said there's no way for her to get the nomination because Obama already has way more delegates than her and her only out is to get the SUPER delegates (don't ask me what they are - but here's a link anyways) to cast their ballots for her instead of Obama. Regardless, McCain will have about a 10 month jump on them with his campaign while Obama and Clinton burn their money trying to get the other to submit.
I will never voted for Hilary and I still haven't heard enough substance from Obama to vote for him. McCain right now is the best bet for me. Unless Obama can give me something more to go on with what he will do with illegal immigartion, the war and the economy, I'm going to stick with McCain.
Alright kids, I know I've been talking about for a while and I've seen all the other kids do it, so here's goes nothing. . .
My first YouTube video!!
This one is Jake Brown. Most people only know him from his slam at the X-Games last summer when he basically fell about 5 stories and walked away. Yeah he did some serious damage to his body including a broken wrist and arm, broken vertebrae and a bruised liver. Not to mention a pretty serious concusion.
Before the X-Games and all the coverage he got from his slam, he had this part in the Blind video which was shot at the DC Ramp. As you can see in the clip, the kid completely rips it up. After seeing this part, my jaw wa laying on the ground for about five minutes.
Anyways, onward to more importat things.
My son showed up for Spring Break and I decided was just going to let him be. Do what he wants, hang out, play his PS2, play on my computer and just let him chill. I decided I wasn't going to set limits and try to keep him in line and see what happens. As I look back now, it was a lot less stressful for both of us. He did play the PS2 and he did spend some time on my computer, but he really managed his time better than I thought he would. I took Monday off so we could spend some more time together. It was fun to go to Game Stop and let him pick out a few games. He brought home his report card and I was really impressed with his progress in the few short months he's been at Hargraves. Personally, I think it has a lot to do with being away from his Mom and learning to be out on his own. He's way more mature than his 13 years would indicate. I'm happy he's found a great environment to thrive in, and it shows in his demeanor and the way we interact with each other now. This summer is going to be the big test. The way things are shaping up, I'm thinking he won't be here for 4 straight weeks, but maybe a week at a time or something where he comes up for a short time, then goes home, then comes back again. I still have to work out the details with his Mom, so we'll see.
As far as work goes, everything is top notch. I hit my number for this month and I pretty much have today off, but hopefully can get a few easy sites to start the month off properly.
The other big news is I'm jumping into the fray and getting my very own
As an ardent non-conformist, I spent a lot of time trying to find something which was even in the same league as the i-phone and couldn't come up with much. I came up with Helio and one of their phones the Ocean. I saw it online and the reviews were okay. They unfortunately use Sprint's network. When I checked out their kiosk in the mall, I was really unimpressed with the phone. It was really small and not very user friendly. The sales person I spoke with told me they were in the midst of transitioning to Verizon's networks, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that ever happening.
The other phone I found was AT&T's Tilt. The phone had pretty much everything anybody would want - except it runs on Windows Mobile. This isn't the dealbreaker, but it gave me pause.
The clincher for the iphone was my co-worker has one and also works in the Apple store at the MOA. He said he could get a good deal on it and since I've seen his in action many times and he knows all the cool programs I should have for it and actually how to use it, I figured he could help me with the learning curve. With the internet and the monthly plan, my bills will be going up, but not tremendously. It should still be relatively manageable.
I'll have to check back in and let you know how its going after I get one - hopefully some time this week. . . .
Here's the pic of the day:
Soccer is coming back around and I'm only playing for one team this summer. I want to log some more mountain biking time this summer and playing with three teams is not going to allow me to do this. Also, the picture reminded of summer and as of right now, its fucking snowing outside which just means soccer, mountain biking or any other spring pursuit is on the back burner for another a few weeks. DAMN YOU OLD MAN WINTER!!
Out.
HOW FAST IT ALL GOES BY YOU
Well, its been several months since my last post and as always there's a ton of stuff going on. Maybe too much even to keep my blog up to date. My new job as a developer has left me little precious time during the day to hop on and write freely for an hour or so. I guess I had it pretty easy as an Account Manager huh? I even had a left over Word Press account I was going to document the process of learning my new job. Yeah, that was cool for about the first week, then I got so swamped I just forgot about trying to keep it up to date. Having more work than hours in the day is a new experience for me. The only reason I have time to write now is I all caught up and waiting for the que to clear a bit so I can go in and vulture an easy site to get over 100% and get another site up to get closer to my monthly goal.
I can see I've learned more in the past few months than the past three years here. Developers definitely have some cool tools they use and seem to know jsut about every corner of the internet. This is really what I was looking for. When I was an AM, it was pretty much up to a handful of people to go out and find cool stuff. I found some unusual stuff, but nothing like the stuff they have down here. One of the other developers showed me a cool music player called Pandora. I use it almost every day now. Between that and my Sirius subscription, I have too much stuff to listen to.
I've kinda cooled my jets on Howard Stern lately, and am completely into the Jason Ellis show on Sirius. The guy is so freaking hilarious, its awesome to listen to him. Whenever I'm having a bad day, I know by 2pm, when Ellis comes on, everything will turn out ok. He has some crazy bits like, "The World's Most Awesome Wednesday's" where they give out a topic and then have people call in and give them nominees and then the listeners can vote. Some of the past topics have been - most awesome job, most awesome sport, most awesome animal. He also has a bit called, "Dude is it gay?" which is pretty funny. People call in with there question and he either hits a bell indicating yes its gay, or they get a buzzer effect which means no they're not gay - its radio gold since Ellis alone makes the call, usually with a brief description either way.
In a nutshell, my job is going awesome and I completely love it. I didn't know how the team would accept me since I don't have near the amount of experience most people on the team have. I found out my manager (who got me the gig) said I fit right in and have been accepted by the rest of the team. She never had any worries I could make it, although I had some doubts myself, but I guess my determination to learn and work hard at all aspects of the job thus far has paid off. I still have a TON to learn and the real skills come when I get cross trained in Desgin Support which is actually programming in CSS. Only time will tell how soon I'll be ready for that.
Everything is still well on the home front. We recently found out we actually signed an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) back when we purchased our house and my GIF was freaked out since we probably would've gotten crushed in two year when the rate went up. We very wisely re-financed to avoid the impending headache. Our monthly payments only went about $100 per month which was a relief. Of course we close on this mortgage later today.
Soccer is still soccer. I dropped my B level indoor team. There were too many guys and we weren't winning many games. It just got boring after a while. I stuck with my A level indoor team and we finally bounced back this session. Last session we had a lot of close games we should have won. We played both the top teams who were undefeated and lost in the last seconds of one game and we tied the other one. Both games were awesome to experience since they were both really clean games and it was just two really good teams going at it. It was a nice change from all the hack fests I've been used to. Of course before my trip to Whitecap (which I'll detail later in this post) I got drilled along the boards. Its several weeks later and my calf still hurts. Oh well, its all part of the game right?
Right now, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to play for Dunesday again. I'm still bitter I played really well for them and they never gave me any indication they would pick me up and give me a full time spot for their indoor teams or the next outdoor season. I've committed to play with some guys who broke off the old Northland Wolves team from last season. I know we're going to have an awesome team. We have lots of young guys and plenty of guys from the Wolves who I've played with before. This will be my only team I'll be playing for. I want to get out and ride my mountain bike more this summer. Playing for two teams was almost too much last summer and when I did get out and ride, it felt great. I really missed riding last summer.
My winter turned out ok. I wanted to snowboard more, but mother nature really cursed me bad this winter. We had snow, and I did get out once and went to Afton Alps for the day. Of course I did get a new board, and this is when the curse finally took hold. I didn't get out until a few weeks ago when we went to Whitecap. Here's my recap of that trip:
Thursday Night:
We leave Minneapolis about 8pm. Get to the one star hotel The Hurley Inn about midnight. Walk in and immediately greeted by the staff who are apparently half in the bag. Several bar patrons come out and tell us we have five minutes to drop our bags and get to the bar as our first round was on them. I was also asked if I was a pro snowboarder. Weird, but then again, this is Hurley WI.
Get to bar about 1pm, upon our arrival, we're met with a fresh beer. We play a game of darts, are given several free shots and several more drinks, I think we paid for one round total. The bar closes as my buzz is just getting started.
I already know this will be a good trip. Pray for LOTS of snow tomorrow.
Friday:
Get to Whitecap nice and early. Its completly deserted. I figure its just a weekday. My first run sucks. Not even a new board and a fresh wax job can help with the fact Whitecap doesn't groom their trails and the snow is shit. Hard and crusty with icy spots in several places. I'm thinking this was a bad idea to go so late in the season. The weather is overcast, cold and slightly windy. We'll see.
Around lunch time, they finally send out the groomer. We have lunch, and I remember the food at the resort totally sucks. Two undercooked brats, an order of nacho and cheese and a 16oz pop (which I had to pay another $1.50 to get a refill) almost filled me up. My Powerbar helped a little.
After lunch Michelle (Dave's whatever you want to call her) decides she wants to take the "Eagle's Nest" chairlift. Yeah, count me OUT. I meet them on the other side after bombing a run and then walking on the tram trail over to the chairlift. After getting to the top and meeting back up with them, find out she had a panic attack on the way over. I just laughed it off.
They close at 4pm and I'm pretty exhausted. Back to the hotel for some hot tub action and a nice nap.
Friday night:
We eat at a local joint and have pizza. I was actually surprised, the pizza was awesome. We polished off two large pizzas and an order of cheesebread. We go back to the hotel to get ready - it was about 9pm.
We went to several bars and I've realized we've gone too late in the season. Most of the bars have a handful of locals in them and not much else. After several hours of going up and down the mainstreet, and taking in several sub-par strippers, we call it a night. I put back a ton of beers, but am not all that drunk.
We go back to the hotel wondering if we can still catch last call - no chance. We wonder back to the room about 2am. Dave and Michelle stop and have sex for two hours in one of the tanning bed rooms they have at the hotel. I'm awoken at 4am with Dave shouting, "Wake up and look at me!" to which I opened my eyes to the horror of him gyrating his hips and shaking his dick at me from across the room. Without anything close to throw at him, I just passed back out and wondered if tomorrow would be better at Indianhead.
Saturday:
I high hopes for this day and Indianhead didn't disappoint. Freshly groomed trails, not a ton of people around made for a great start to the day. Even the long chairlift rides and several stops didn't matter that much to me. We carved that place to shreds. Indianhead has a great terrain park and I was eager to see if the pipe had been maintained this year. I went a few years back and it was simply awesome. I had such a great time, I was hoping for a repeat performance. I didn't have much time before we took lunch.
Let me just say the food at Indianhead was head and shoulder sabove Whitecap. I had a half pund angus cheeseburger and a heaping pile of fries. I barely finished my burger and hardly touched my fries and I was stuffed. I even got a free refill from the lady at the bar. Then my day got much better. Someone told us the "Bikini Race" was just starting and we better get out to check it out. We headed over and were not disappointed. Dave even got the last girl (a snowboarder no less) captured on his phone as a video - awesome!!
As if the day couldn't get any better, the SUN came out. We rode in the 20+ degree day for the last few hours and it was simply paradise. I split up and rode in the terrain park for about two hours and then headed in around 3pm, totally exhuasted. I knew I better save up some energy for tonight since it was St. Patricks weekend and there would be a lot more people out tonight.
Friday night:
We got back to the hotel and chilled out in the hot tub again and then figured we'd crash for a few hours (like we did the previous night) and then get ready around 9pm again. Ummmmmmmmmm yeah, we crashed HARD and didn't get up till 10:30pm!! We got up and hurried to get ready. We ordered pizza at the bar and then headed out about 11:30pm. We went back to the same bar (The Horse's Corral or something) and there were more people around, but the music was still horseshit. Then played BuckCherry's "Crazy Bith" four times within the first 30 minutes. Michelle wanted to go check out the rest of the bars. We went to virtually every bar and NOBODY, I mean NOBODY was out. The whole town was empty except for this one bar. We went back, had several more drinks and bascially hung out. We lamented on the trip and all agreed, next year, we're going to come up a few weeks earlier.
Sunday:
A lazy ride home was nice. Sunny and in the lower 30's. It was a great day to talk about the trip, the strange things Hurley offered up and lament about next year. Next year. . . . .
No pictures for the day, sorry - I gotta get to lunch!!!
Seacrest OUT.
WHO WILL I VOTE FOR?
This is the year of another presidentail election and I really have no idea who I'm going to back. The last two elections I voted for Bush. The first time I voted for Bush, I thought he was in a good position to really go after terrorits and have some good effect on the middle east and the whole Saddam Hussein issue. the second time I voted for him it was purely out of spite for the Liberals and Democrats who just went after him. I thought the Libs just didn;t have any idea of how to fight terrorism and would leave us vunerable to another 9/11 attack. Not to mention, they were going to raise taxes and they clearly had no idea how to fix social security. It was the year of the flip flops with the Democrats and it drove me crazy.
I've always fancied myself as an independent. I've voted pretty much for every party at one time or another. I jsut go with the party who I think will best run the country. Although I want a "fiscally" responsible government, I also want better environmental policies, I want us to get off our dpenedence of foreign oil, and also be tough on illegal immigration and terrorism.
I have no idea which candidate will do this the best. The election is only in the primaries and the last time I did one of those 2008 Presidential Candidate Quizes It said the best candidate for me was Fred Thompson. Given he was nowhere to be found in any of the primaries so far, I'm kinda a little
nervous because if Fred isn't the nominee, i really don't know who I'll vote for. I know I'm not voting for Hilary (too liberal for me) or Barack (no experience) . Which I guess pretty much rules out voting Democrat - again.
Right now besides Fred Thompson, it looks like Mitt Romney is the closet thing I can get to an ideal candidate.
We'll see. . .
WELCOME 2008. . .
Well its finally here - 2008. 2007 is but a memory, and it was a decent year. Very little drama (thank god) lots of stability (thank god) and a ton of things happening out in the real world.
For a recap of what happened - here's a brief list courtesy of Info Please. I don't remember what resource I used last year, but it is what it is.
I really haven't blogged as much as I would have liked to - does anybody though? With all the stability in my life, the drama in my life usually centered around my relationship with the mother of my son, my son, and my parents. There was some interesting things which happened around my soccer teams, which I'm pretty usre I've already written
about.
The big happenings for me was finally getting on a top tier soccer team (at 37 mind you) and playing well in the top tier (the 1st Division) of our soccer league. My parents selling thier house for a pile of dough and than running into major problems with a contractor who was a family friend. Every time I spoke to my parents, it was something new. The house is, for the most part, finally done. The last big project was their kitchen which was finished right before Christmas. Of course, they had everybody over for dinner to show off 95% of the renovations which are now completed.
Hmmmmm, my son getting sent off to military school in Virginia was a biggie. Check the school out here. Of course it ain't cheap. After I spoke with her telling her I wouldn't support her decision, she blurted out she was going to go back to court and get my support increased in order to get my share of the expenses for him
attending the school. I got a good laugh after I met with an attorney and he said not to be
too concerned, since my payments would most likely go DOWN if she dragged me into court.
I think my Mom got my son a cell phone so he can call us from school. It was funny to see him go bonzo over the thing and carry it around with him wherever he went. He then proceeded to call his Mom every night after 7 9since its free mind you). I don't have any problem with it, I think its cool he's so into his new gadget, he just wants to get familiar with it - which is cool. I guess I know now how I act whenever I get some new geeky gadget and want to know every single thing about it.
I'm about to change jobs again for the new year. I landed a development job and will be movinig over on January 21st. I had a WordPress blog and am seriously considering using it as a play-by-play for my new job. We'll see, we'll see.
With every new year, we need to troll out our resolutions for the coming year. I think my big resolution last year was to really get into my blog and expand beyond the simple text
and hyperlinking and really go nuts with it. I at least got a new theme, but am still interested
in getting Video on my blog and some other interesting things.
As with a billion other people, I've vowed to work out more and get my weight down again. Although every year, after the holidays, I get back on my diet and start eating better and of course, soccer and hockey resume shortly after the holidays. I eat like shit every year and pack on about 4 pounds over the holidays. I think I put on MORE this year, so my preparation for this summer is going to take a more diligent effort this year.
The guys I usually play hockey with on Friday nights decided not to continue getting ice time. One of my friends told me it was because one of the guys running it was not getting paid and just decided to end it. My only other option (besides joining an actual league) would be to play on Wednesday's. I really don't know if I'm going to be up for this since they get ice time at about 9:45pm. This means getting home around midnight and not getting to bed until about 1am. I wouldn't mind on Thursday or Friday, but midweek can be tough to catch up the rest of the week.
The other development is my new team which was put together from the remains of the Northland Wolves squad. Out of the 22 players on that team, we took almost the entire team to start this new team.
We played last session at Corner Kick and we ended up third in the league. I think we only lost two games - which was a nice change of pace. I guess the two guys running it wanted to get into a more "outdoor" league which doesn't use boards and uses a wider field so we can prepare for the outdoor season. I'm pretty sure we waited too long before we registered with another league and now I'm feeling like we're going to get locked out and will have to wait another session before getting back in, which will be about another 2 months - YUCK!
What will 2008 bring? Who knows, at least this past year went off without a hitch. i can only hope for more blessings for the coming year.
God Willing of course
