Job Changes

I recently decided to make a job change. In light of recent economic hardships some might wonder the wisdom in such a change at this time. My decision has been influenced at least in part by the current economical client. In times of uncertainty we look at the strength of our current positions and evaluate stronger foundations on which to build. There have been other strong factors that have moved me to this decision however. I could not in good conscious simply "abandon ship" when the going gets tough. This is a fact that my job history can attest to. I think the largest part of my economical concern was not that "times were tough", as much as the reason's behind that hardship. I have often said, "It is one thing for a poor man to need money for food and quite another for that same man to have gambled away his food only days before. That is not to say that mistakes are not made by person and organization alike. The difference is what we take away from those mistakes. In the end I felt that much of our "pain" was self inflicted. I also felt as though that message was understood and even accepted. I have no cure for apathy. I thought about the situation for quite sometime. In the end my mind kept wandering back to the first part of The Serenity Prayer.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

The idea is common even without the christian overtones. Buddhists hold similar beliefs in regard to finding calm by accepting the things one can not change. A portion of my discontentment is a mindset, or a collection of ideas that are held by those around me here. Acceptance has come from the realization that these traits are immutable. I think the hardest part is actually following through with the outcome that you know you will reach. I have known for sometime what the situation was, and deep down I have known that I could not change it. I rallied against it, against myself. I have come to understand that knowing something and acknowledging something are not the same. I have been hesitant to ask myself the question. Once asked it must answered, and once answered it must be acknowledged. With acknowledgment comes acceptance and sometimes its hard to accept the answers we don't like. And so just like that the path I always knew was there lay before me waiting patiently to be traversed. I do know what lies ahead, only where I have been and why I continue to move forward.

Get with the times

I've been thinking a lot lately about Christian religions lately and I think religious marketing needs an overhaul. If the goal is really to attract new members and younger members, churches really need to take a hard look at how to better reach their demographic. Regardless of how you feel about it, an overwhelming majority of the target audience treat input differently than they did in generations past. It seems some of the most successful ways of getting messages across to this audience is a mix of subtly, sarcasm, humor, and just plain brutal honesty. Calm down, I'm not suggesting new ad campaigns like "Get Christ dumb a$$!" What I am suggesting is that we put our own egos and feelings aside and focus on the message we want to convey. Here's an example. I see this in different forms and formats from time to time on everything from websites to tee shirts.

Christianity: The belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so that he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. Makes perfect sense.

I am a christian. When I first saw this I was not horrified. I laughed. Put aside your personal feelings for a moment and really look at the words. Here in lies the weapon of your figurative enemy. It fits all the criteria above, its flip, humorous, and although its somewhat slanted it is somewhat honest. Then its topped off with "Makes perfect sense." The paragraph above it is nothing more than a setup for this line. It is this small line that actually conveys the message the author wanted to convey. The author is saying "See, this is all ridiculous", the preceding paragraph is nothing more than a delivery mechanism. It wouldn't take much at all to change the entire tone of this message. Here's a rough example:

The question isn't do I believe that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so that he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. The question is: Why don't you?

Another option is to take the above narrative and add a second paragraph using the same slanted view and humor to describe a current and generally well known set of factual events. The idea is that everyone knows the "factual event" and then they read how jaded or humorous it sounds with changed in a similar manner. The comparison to a actually fact causes the reader to accept for the current context that both are fact. Now throw in some humorous closing at the end like: "Sarcasm - turning facts to fun for over 1000 years!" With just a little change you've created something memorable, funny, and easily shared. Best of all, tucked inside those tiny lines lies a message you wanted to get across. These examples are just rough ideas. I am not suggesting compromising our beliefs, but I don't believe God will be overly upset at me for referring to Eve as a "rib woman", I've seen funnier translations of bible terms from language to language. People grow, change, and evolve. In order to continue to reach people we must be willing to change with them, without compromising our underlying principles. It saddens and scares me to think the only thing coming between reaching someone and not might be our (myself included) own ego or personal comfort levels.

Weekend come and gone

Well the weekend has ended. I am typing the following in the car on the way to work (don't worry my wife is driving). Reflecting back I can't say that I accomplished much.
I did't feel very good Saturday. My wife's mother visited us but I slept almost the entire time. Against all odds I did manage to put up one more wall in the basement. It seemed as if fate was against us, as anything that could go wrong did. We vowed to complete at least one wall before giving up.
I played with my laptop a little last night. Since I got it back it has frozen twice and powered down once. I found my 64bit windows ultimate cd this weekend so with a deep breath and a silent prayer I started a reinstall last night.
I prepared for this reinstall (or so I thought) in the nights previous by fownloading all the vista 64 drivers from the asus web site. After successfully reinstalling all I would have to do is run the various driver installs. As luck would have it however some of the installs had damaged or corrupted files. In the end however I was able to get around the problems and went to sleep while windows installed it's seemingly endless updates. I am bringing my laptop with me work to finish the various installs today.

[iBlogger'd from my iPod!]

I haz a bored

The last few days I've been extremely bored. I constantly feel as though there is something really cool I just can't remember to do. I keep finding lots of free time and nothing to fill it with. Like right now for instance. My mind just keeps wandering off randomly, but I suppose all is well as long as it remembers to come back. So tired, Randi just went to bed earlier and the thought of sleep sounds so inviting. Maybe I'll do that.

You see this on Bad Television...

So far throughout my life I have had a torrid on again off again love affair with television. I was raised in front of the the television. I know most old TV sitcom theme songs and commercials by heart. Then all the sudden right around my teenage years I was done. I barely watched TV at all. After a few years I would occasionally pick up a show or two but never for long. Over the last few years I have slowly reintroduced a show or two. For the record I can't even stand shows like 24 and Prison Break. Over the top sensational drama where you only stay tuned to see what absolutely retarded thing they will do next has no appeal. I have noticed a tendency over the past few years of watching movies and fast forwarding through most parts. The number of movies and shows I have watched this way are actually too numerous to count. I think my wife chalks it up to a short attention span but I've been mulling it over the last few days and I disagree. I've noticed an uncanny ability to predict with uncanny accuracy several elements of most plot lines. My wife has often heard me summarize an entire 15 minute scene ahead of time. I can usually map out what about to happen, what the characters are going to learn and what its going to be a transition for in the next scene. A few nights ago for example we rented the movie "Wanted". I had reasonable hopes for the movie and to be fair it was entertaining but knew pretty quickly exactly where it was going. Originality. That's whats missing. Perhaps it was all those years of watching TV that desensitized me to the common plot line and scenarios. I fast forward not because I can't focus, its because I already know the part I'm watching and I just don't want to wait for it to resolve so I can get to the part I don't. It's like knowing 3/4ths of a story and then having to sit through the whole thing again to hear the ending. The "Amazing Plot Twist" game of the last few years has been so overplayed that the new "Amazing Plot Twist" is actually not having one. The plot twist you never see coming because it isn't there! It seems equivalent to the "made you look" games of childhood. Enough with the reality TV, down with the over the top sensationalism, and to hell with all the Americas Top [Model, Singer, Got Talent, Fashion Designer, Hair Stylist, insert random profession here]. Bring back good old fashion television. All in the Family was entertaining, and you never tuned in to see Edith tied up in the basement while Archie negotiated for Gloria's life after Meathead was arrested for importing Chinese for black market organ donation. Night Court, MASH, Gilligan's Islands, sure they all had their little cliff hangers but you watched for the show itself. Another common fupa seems to be prematurely canceling shows. Pilots and first seasons typically aren't they great. Even the great shows weren't the best in their first season. Give the darn show a couple of seasons for the series to develop and people to get interested. It seems like if there isn't immediate overwhelming interest the immediately start changing the characters, the main story, or just cancel it all together for the next short lived series. Lately it seems this practice has been biting back. After the shows are canceled the networks discover how popular they really were and they try to scramble to get them back together. Just my two cents.

Woot Google!

The new video-in-chat feature from Google is just fantastic! Couple this with features like the FireFox add-on Cool Preview and you have the makings of a very cool setup! The link preview feature is somethings I've always thought was a good idea. I think the future will distance itself from the page concept model more and we will see more support more of a "snippet" concept. IE 8 beta has already implemented much of this type of functionality.

Success!

Well my interview is over! It went really well, better than I had expected. The project is a very interesting one that will give me a chance to work with several other accomplished architects. The biggest draw for me on this project was the chance to work other architects. I thrive on the back and forth exchanges as ideas are ironed out. Some people take negative criticism harshly and I'm sure I have my days where I am over sensitive too. In general however I have never really had a problem with someone telling an idea was poor or that something wouldn't work. IF they provide and explanation or a reason. All too often I get feedback like, "that's impossible, its not going to work", but never real reason or better yet and alternate solutions. I relearned to tie a Windsor knot today with a little help. You have to love YouTube. Six or seven times of watching this guy do it and I was alright. I could do without the initial diagram and walk through however. It goes too fast and its not entirely clear from the pictures.

BLARG!!!

You know its sad, I am changing employment and I've tried twice to write a blog about what I'm thinking. I just can't seem to do it. I have two drafts so far, one should be a novella and I'm not sure where I was going with the other one. Perhaps I'm just too scatterbrained right now. I really need to do some last minute studying for this interview I am about to have and learn how to tie a tie. :(

Getting Lax

I've been a little lax recently about blogging but I am trying to remind myself to stick with it. It is somewhat odd in a way because it seems like the times I have the most going on I blog the least. I have actually made a number of blogs that haven't shown up on Blogger recently. I love my IPod Touch and I was previously using it to blog while I was on the go. The app I was using was called LifeCast. However it seems the author of the app decided update it with a "new" version that no longer supports Blogger at all. Wonderful update thanks. Still in keeping with my other resolutions I must admit the fault is my own. If I deemed it important enough I should have "found a way" to make the time. Its late and I'm tired at the moment. I've been studying UML, design patterns and software product lines all night for an interview I am really looking forward tomorrow. This is when I really need to try and remember my "Less is More" credo. Instead of overwhelming with volume I am going to try and choose my words carefully and concisely so that I put forth exactly the message I want to convey. I'll explain more about why I am interviewing in another post soon.

Asus Laptop Story comes to a close

The laptop was delivered on Tuesday. Unfortunately I was not at home at the time (partially because I didn't know it was going to be delivered) so I missed it. I stayed home the following day however and the package was redelivered. The packaging was very good, similar to when I first received it. After letting it warm up for a while I opened the box, setup the laptop, and read the enclosed summary. The hinge has been fixed and I am happy to report that it no longer squeaks. According to the letter it needed tightened inside. No USB problem was found, but I was unsure as to whether the issue was hardware or software and so I was not unhappy. The cause of the overheating was found and fixed! The summary shows that unit was overheating due to an excessive amount of the compound used to fix the heat sink to the video processor as well as some installation blockage. This is fantastic news! The found the problems and fixed them without any hassle! I've been using the laptop for the last few days and still no squeaking! I have had no immediate shutdowns or freezes. I haven't been able to put the unit under much of load yet but I am intend play some Warhammer later tonight. In the past the game was notorious for causing pretty quick shutdowns. I am so glad I chose to have a positive attitude about this entire experience. It has been hard, but looking back now I would have been anxious and worried about the possibilities that never came to pass. Even if the worse case scenario had happened worrying about it was pointless because I hadn't reached a juncture in which I could affect any outcome. Thanks ASUS, I really appreciate your customer support. I need to remember to post a comment on New Egg where I purchased the items to let people know that I was pleased with their product and their service.

Frustrated!

I will apologize upfront for what may seem like a nonsensical rant. Where I work frustrates me greatly. The root of the problem is a mix of passive aggressiveness and simple laziness. I suppose most people can relate to following example. I am currently assigned multiple projects. This is the nature of my job and I have no problem juggling multiple deliverables. The problem is that the time lines are incompatible. Recently one of my projects was moved to another developer. The problem is the project manager made the decision and informed me but not the receiving developer and for some reason she still comes to me for updates and deliverables. My typical work week goes very similar to the following. Projects A, B, C, D all have a documented estimate of 24 working hours to complete.

• Monday Morning - Begin working on Project A
• Monday Afternoon - Directed to change focus to Project B items only
• Tuesday - Directed to work on Project B only
• Wednesday - Directed to stop work on Project B and work on a Project C item
• Thursday Morning - Continue work on Project C items
• Thursday Afternoon - Directed to stop work on Project C and resume Project B
• Friday Morning - Directed to work on Project D

*** To this point although the constant change is annoying I actually just fine Friday Afternoon (Here's the punchline) I am approached with the following:

• Have you made any progress on Project A?
• When will Project A be complete?
• Why aren't you finished with Project B?
• Its really important that Project D is finishedfor client
  Publish Post
  review today, and you need to at least migrate something for Project C to review.

I know some of you may be saying, "Well perhaps she doesn't understand or realize the time lines are overlapping". She does, I've mapped it out before. Even in the face of logic there is an almost will full ignorance. I have sat down and said, "O.K. we have an 8 hour work day here but you have slated for delivery these three items with a combined estimate of 32 hours". All I get is a blank stare. It's not that shes dumb, she knows. Its as though she is simply hoping against hope that hope alone will somehow make it possible. In a nutshell my frustration is the willful and deliberate continued ignorance in the presence of enlightenment. end rant

New Car

This past Monday my wife and I set out on the arduous quest that is car buying. My father worked for GM and as such I have always been able to get what GM calls an "A Buyer" discount. It's basically a few thousand dollars off MSRP depending on the car. One of our biggest problems is and has been that many of the GMC / Chevy / Pontiac / Saturn cars just don't appeal to us. It has always seemed like the majority of their business is geared big vehicles and the few smaller sized sedans that they do offer often fill one extreme of feeling very cheap or being very powerful. Neither my wife nor I are big fans of the SUV or the Mini Van. There are times I wouldn't mind a truck but those times are few and far between and wouldn't require the monster sized trucks being pushed. We just want a car, preferable a sedan as the insurance is cheaper and a 4 door vehicle is easier to use if we have kids. Right now I drive a Chevy Aveo, and before the accident my wife also drove one. They are both all right cars. We drive 80 miles a day to work so gas mileage for them being a non hybrid has been nice. I will have to say that hers was much nicer than mine but neither of them are anything to talk about. When we started looking for cars I really wanted to try and find a GM / Chevy car, I couldn't believe how hard it was to find what I wanted. For starters the Chevy website is horrible! The main Build it Now link doesn't work on the site so I actually had to find another way to get the page. Unlike other websites that let you build or add features and show the prices Chevy kicks you to a dealer customized portal with some type of list item feature application. You can't tell what your adding, what it does, what it will look like, or even what it will cost. Frustrating! When it came down to it we couldn't find the kind of car in our price range. The only cars with the features we were looking for were only on the highest end models, and even with a discount applied the price was outside what we were looking to spend. We strongly considered buying another hybrid. We loved our Civic hybrid and we like her parents Prius but this time we were trying to keep our costs under $20,000.00 and preferably closer to $15,000.00. After alot of searching we started looking at used cars. Used cars make me nervous in general, I haven't owned one in almost a decade as my past experiences were typically poor. After some research we decided to check out Carmax. I see their commercials all the time but I never realized they were a "No Haggle" dealer. The price is the price, which was somewhat odd for me. Randi found a Chrysler Sebring she was interested in on the site and after test driving it and looking at some other models we settled on it. At the end it did come down to a choice between two Sebrings but I more and more I feel like we chose the right one.

Asus Laptop Update

I tried to post yesterday from my IPod but for some reason I just wasn't able to publish it. Friday I decided to check on the status of my laptop using the Tracking number supplied by Asus. One slightly bothersome item is that although the email tells you that you can track that status of your repair and gives a handy little number in order to do so, they don't actually tell you how or where to go. I was however able to find the correct url after a little digging through their site. When I checked the status it says: ASUS After-sale Repair Status Route is as below: Product Received > (Waiting) > Repairing > Final Testing > Packing > Ready for Shipping > Repair Finished Then in a box below it shows the status as Repair Finished() . Great! So the repairs are done, but without any notes I have just be optimistic and assume that since I have no emails they must have found the problems and fixed them. Although I can see the current status I really wish there was a way to see when the status changed. Since it appears to be at the end of the process and repair center is in the same state I should see a package in the mail any day. In a way its kind of frustrating however because I don't know when to expect it or how long to wait before I should I call and check on it. I'm going to try to put it out of my mind until at least Wednesday.

IPod Touch Google Contact Sync Bug

I thought I would post this in the hopes of saving others some of the leg work I went through trying to figure why I couldn't seem sync my IPod Touch with my Google Contacts. All of the other options would work just fine except for Google. After confirming that my friends could sync their Google contacts without problem and searching the Internet for anyone having similar issues I set out on trying to figure out what was different. To fix this issue verify that none of your Google contacts have a Skype Instant messenger entry saved. If ANY contact has Skype Information under the Instant Messenger section then NOTHING will sync at all. I have confirmed this with other IPod owners and Gmail accounts. Adding Skype Information at this time will keep you from synchronizing or prevent you from synchronizing again if you already have. I have submitted a bug but until its resolved if you see a fellow frustrated IPod owner you might pass this along!

Dream

Last night I experienced a very interesting and profound dream. 

The setting was a dry and arid landscape.  The sun was beating down from the sky and the sand beneath me stretched out for miles in every direction.  Every detail was painted from pallette of yellows and browns except for the sky which was highlighted in a briliant blue.  I stood in the midst of what appeared to be an ancient abandoned town.

As I walked, it seemed as though I was approaching one paticular building that had caught my attention.  The building itself was not extrodinary but somehow I knew that it was a temple of some kind.  A simple stone arched entrance marked two joining sides of the building.  Inside the layout was reminiscent of an old coliseum, if somewhat smaller.  As I entered the building my attention was focused on a stone platform fixed prominently in the center.  The stage stood half a foot tall and was  considerably narrow in length.  Unlike the building the stage was adorned with red fabric and intricate but unmemorable gold designs.  Beyond and surrounding the stage were several stone blocks laid out in teirs similar to bleachers.

I found myself in the center of the stage engrossed in thoughts of self confidently declaring this temple my own when I first became aware of another presence.  Although I knew I had entered alone, without sight or sound, I knew that this was no longer so.  Without turning to meet his gaze or even acknowledging his presence I knew him to be a god.  It was at this moment that he “communicated”.  My words fall short of appropriately articulating the experience.  He spoke without speaking and it was if every word was said at the same time.  Light and sound converged, and although I understood him at the time I can recall no substance to the conversation.

Deep inside I knew fear, but I decided to appear indifferent.  Dismissively I waved my hand and said aloud, “Be gone, you have no followers anymore.  This temple is mine.”, still not meeting his gaze.  After many moments I finally turned to face him, standing unwaivering among the upper row of stones..  His appearance was tall and slender, clad in deceptively thin armor made of gold.  Bits of crimson cloth seemed to adorn his armor and at times seemed to almost form a cloak.  His helmet appeared narrow and elongated and although it did not obscure his features I can recall in detail his face.  His visage appeared as many faces sitting on top of each other.  In many ways it felt like a very dark face shaped like that of a dog or a jackal.  The image was something that I could feel  than see.

 After a moment he began to approach me.  His movements were slow and deliberant and as he approached it seemed less as though he were moving and more as though the distance between us was simply closing.  He stopped at the opposite end of the stage and once again he spoke words without sound that I can not recall.  I stood steadfast refusing to yield my bluff.

Purposefully he drew from each hip a very eloquent curved short sword. The blades appeared gold in color with a red jewel embedded where the hilt met the blade.  They were as beautiful as they were deadly.  Although I had brought with me no weapons, I suddenly found my right hand grasping a similar blade at my side.  I had sudden understanding that this was a duel.  One that I, in my arrogance had caused and was obviously outmatched.  At my realization he began his approach in a calm and deliberate manner.  With each step he swung the blades in sync a full circle each time resting the tip toward me.

My mind raced and my initial reaction was to stand firm and unafraid.  For some reason I felt almost enlightened, as though I could see all possible outcomes at once.  I knew that I would not win and at best I could see myself losing at least one of my arms.  The blow would strike cleanly at the shoulder, severing it.  I felt each outcome as though I had lived it individually instead of mearly observing it.  My sword was at the ready in front of me, but cowardace caused me to retreat slowly backwards  My mind was racing, searching for some advantage, but there was none to be had.  His advanced continued until he had pressed me through the stone archway and out of the temple.

As my last footstep carried me backwards outside the temple his advanced ceased and his stance relaxed.  I was bitter in my cowardace and the taste of defeat.  In my arrogance I cried out, “What fairness is this when you have two swords and I have but one?”.  My words were meant for my own comfort and perhaps to ease the sting of defeat, but as the last word passed my lips he tossed me one of his swords which I caught with my left hand.  My bluff was called yet again.  Desperate I began searching for a new excuse.  As I looked up to protest that I would not fight an opponent at a disadvantage, he had already gestured and was once again holding two swords.  He had anticipated my excuse, we were now both evenly matched.

Again I found myself at one end of the stone platform in the center of the temple.  He began his approach in the same manner as before calmly and methodically advancing with an aire of confidence.  I stood there at the ready, my mind racing in desperation to formulate some defense or talk my way out of this.  It took only moments for the prescient feelings of defeat to return.  The overwhelming understanding of my defeat caused what little remained of my courage to once again falter and I found myself slowly stepping back.  I can not recall any fighting but I do remember the distinctive ring of steel as though I defensively parried one or two of the strikes.  Regardless of what little resistance I may have put forth I found myself once again stepping backward through the arched entrance.

Having once again halted his advance, I stood staring at him in the temple entrance for several moments searching for something to say.  All of my thoughts were interrupted by an abrupt and unexpected attack.  A single strike by a previously unseen weapon commanded my full attention.  I had only enough time to raise my blades in front of me in defense, and for a moment I was pleased by my prowess.  The force of the blow halted, his weapon sat heavily and purposefully on my blade.  It resembled a long staff with an upward curved blade at the end.  My eyes followed from the tip of the blade and down the staff to its bearer.

It was in this moment as I stood silently staring at him that I fully understood the true intent behind the attack.  He wanted my full and undivided attention.  My thoughts of anything had ceased at that moment.  It was after this feeling had fully enveloped me that he spoke plainly the only words I am able to recall.  He said, “That is why you will never lead.”  He paused a moment before continueing.  “Even with the respect and power you seek, you lack the courage to lead men of will”.  Each word brought an understanding as though a thousand conversations had transpired in the span of two sentences.

His message spoken, he remained motionless for a moment, and though our eyes were locked I could still make out no distinguishing facial features. Then abruptly he withdrew his attack and returned to the temple. I remember very distinctly saying, "What I said about you having no followers before, well you do now." If my words mattered or were even heard it did not show. As he left I was overcome with a sense sorrow or perhaps shame. I had been shown something about myself that I already knew but I couldn't admit.  I was a coward.  My fear had overwhelmed me, and though I may sometimes deflect or defend with a biting tongue I would find no refuge against men of will.  I will always be a slave to those who see me for what I am.

Asus Laptop Update

I have an update on my laptop that I am having repaired. Today I sent it out with the information provided by ASUS for shipping. I read through and followed all the directions. The destination is actually in my state so the turn around time might not be very long at all. Attached is a copy of the letter that I enclosed with the laptop for the technicians. I am still in good spirits with high hopes! To Whom It May Concern: The following is a list of the three reasons for which I am sending this system into support: The bottom left corner of the LCD screen does not meet up correctly with the Laptop at the point of the hinge. When the laptop is open even the slightest movements will cause the location around the hinge to squeak. You can visibly see a difference at the hinge when the screen is opened or closed when compared to the right side. Because the microphone is in the LCD screen, the noise interferes with its use. The laptop will frequently shut down while being used or completely and instantly power off. My first assumption was software so I restored from the provided backup. Shortly after the restore I still noticed the same problem. From observations I believe the issue may be due to heat. I have noticed when it is cooler the "power off's" seem a little less frequent but still persistent. I thought perhaps it was only when the machine, particularly the video card, was under a heavy load. However I have had the machine "Power Off" moments after a fresh restart with only a single browser window open at the time. Sometimes when a USB device is plugged in or remains plugged in it will cause the system to error and shut down. When this occurs there is a message regarding USB Power loss and a recommendation to change the settings. I have noticed the the USB ports are somewhat loose, particularly on the right side. I have not wanted to "experiment" with the USB port for fear of damaging the system. This machine is one of two identical machines from the same order. To date the other machine does not exhibit these symptoms. I am still pleased with system and ASUS, and I would like to thank you for you time and help. I hope these issues can be fixed. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me via email at xxxx.yyy@zzz.com or by phone at ###.###.####. Thanks,

Its been a pretty good day

Overall today has been surprising mellow and reasonably productive. I don't think I'm going to be able to get to the basement today but I did manage to knock of a number of my To Do List items. AMI finally has template site live and running, all I need to do now is add content. I know its only the beginning but I'm feeling pretty good about it as badly needed step in the right direction. I am somewhat proud of myself today for exercising some restraint and adhering to some of my resolutions to talk a little less and quell my urge to interject my input into nearby conversations. Today a couple of developers had a reasonably extended technical conversation in which I was trying to tune out but just kept coming back to. A couple of times I caught myself starting to look over as though to offer a comment but I thought better of it. Later I was also able to steer a meeting back onto a more positive track. Still, I think keeping my mouth shut may be harder than I originally thought! :)

Project Positive

Well Project Positive is still moving forward despite the challenges. It seems as though there is a never ending string of "strife" in front of me, but I am working not to let it drag me down. I see change coming and change has a way of making me anxious. I think above all else I am going to try and focus on a sense of calm, I just need to remember the Serenity Prayer.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Its a reoccurring theme in many religious and a staple of many "self-help" programs. Deep down I think I have the wisdom to know the difference. Its the inability to completely accept those things that can not be changed that I have to work on.

I was a little lazy the first part of today. In the afternoon Randi and I played Tetris party on the Wii for a while. I am happy to report though that later in the afternoon I put myself towards the task of accomplishing a goal. I need to finish my work on the basement. So far the majority of it is framed and even wired electrically. The process requires two inspections, one pre-drywall and one post-drywall. The only thing really keeping me from getting my pre-drywall inspection was a couple of small wall sections I had yet to complete. All total I knew it was only a few hours of work but its gone undone for so long. I could tell Randi didn't really want to help and I was very tempted to put the task off myself. I remembered something I said before in my resolutions. Ultimately the responsibility is mine, getting help is fine but allowing them to become your own excuse is too convenient. In the end I only really need an extra person when I set the walls in place. The reason being is that I use a plumb-bob to mark my lines on the floor to ensure the walls are put in and standing from top to bottom. It takes one person to hold the tool and another to mark the ground. So I decided to do everything that I could up to the point in which I would need to involve another person. I was able to finish 3 wall sections and I am now ready to buy some doors. I will need the doors in order to finish a couple more small wall sections so that I will know the correct length. I am going to get the basement finished this year! My secret hope is to have it finished by the first quarter of the year, but my more realistic deadline is by June. I'll post some pictures of the basement later. With that task out the way I'm going to spend a little time working on the site for AMI before heading off to be lazy again for a while before bed.

Family

My grandparents are visiting this week from Florida so today we are spending the day at my fathers while they visit. It's been a long day but it has been good to catch up. The colts game started while we were there so I played some games with my brothers and wrote this entry while watches. I think the games are 2 to 3 hours long so I expect it will me late when we get home. Currently there are no plans for tommorow so maybe I'll just lay around and be lazy.

Posted with LifeCast

A New Day cont

Well its mid-afternoon now and I am feeling much better. Work is slow and quiet and I am lamenting not bringing my space heater back to work with me. At least the office is no longer in the high 50 to low 60 degree temperature. The atmosphere at work today seems to make the day appear to drag on. I find myself the victim of one of my vices, a vice I have made note to work on this year. I sometimes get frustrated with the people I work with and in the past that frustration has caused me to speak out from time to time. My frustration is in regard to the lazy "it can't be done" attitude, when the real answer is usually that they either don't want to do it or they don't know how to do it. I've seen a lot of good ideas never given a second glance because the person being asked gave some excuse about why it was a bad idea. I know different departments don't always get along but I hate it when I see how it affects the business as a whole. The attitude seems to be, "how dare they have the audacity to want something we haven't given them". Anyway to apply this to my situation my company often markets the addition of blogging features to our clients. Interesting enough though when they accept we don't really seem to have a direction in mind. Furthermore it was noticed that our company does not have a blog itself. What better way to illustrate the very points we try to sell than to set our own example? Right from the start the response was negative. "You can't do that", "There's too much involved" etc... The excuses for why it couldn't be done abounded. No one wanted to entertain the possibilities. So I spoke up. For the most part I was a met with a "your full of shit, I don't believe you" attitude. So I did what I usually do and proved the worth to my words. I have come to realize my folly and fully understand just how much I have been consistently duped. The challenges to what I say never stop, I never get anymore credibility for the effort. Why would I? Its genius. As long as they continue to question, I continue to do, and in the end they avoid exactly what they wanted to in the first place. I know my own worth, I don't need their agreement to validate it. In the past I continued to meet the challenges not because of personal pride or merit because I believed that it was just a matter of someone not knowing that it could be done. I viewed it more as a learning / teaching experience (not in a condescending way). After a time though constant lack of creditability wears on you. So here I set cleaning up the last remnants of a blogging project that was added to my normal workload, while I wait to attend a meeting for yet another project that is also a result of this vice. These projects are too far along to walk away from, but these will be my last. Each moment of added stress will only serve to help drive this lesson home. I have nothing to prove to anyone other than myself.

A New Day

Well my first working day of the year is off to a rough start. I woke up today with a nagging pain in my lower abdomen, and I just can't seem to shake it. I don't think it's serious, just uncomfortable and annoying. In other news human resources asked me for my retirement account number. It wasn't a big deal but checking on it also showed me my losses so far. To date it looks like I've lost about $1000.00. It might seem horrible but I also realize that everything has lost. I'm not really that worried about it. I believe that the investments are good solid choices. If anything now is a good time to buy while the prices are down.

Posted with LifeCast