Young at Heart....

Created by Train Horn

So apparently only teenagers are supposed to be able to hear this noise, but I heard it. I guess that means I'm still young. I tend to think that this is more of a test to tell who takes care of their hearing, but I did my fair share of loud music and shooting guns without hearing protection that I probably shouldn't be able to hear it. So let me know your results.

WORK < REWARD

One of the benefits of being a software engineer (a.k.a code monkey) is that I can do my job from pretty much any location. My new employer is fairly flexible and has told me that on occasion working from home is allowed. Sometime Friday night I injured my lower back and have been in pain since. This morning when I woke up I decided that it would be a good day to try out the work from home bit. Despite my initial reservations about not being able to get anything done, it went rather well. Let me tell you, writing code while sitting in a lazy boy, it’s not half bad. Crystal was even nice enough to bring me some crepes while I was working and they were eating their breakfast.

The best part happened in the late afternoon. Ben had just returned home from his cousin’s house and stormed down the stairs to where I was. He walked over to me and pointed to the mouse that I was using on the arm of the chair, and asked me to move it. Curious to see what he was plotting I moved it to the other side of the chair. Ben then proceeded to climb onto the chair, give me a hug and said, “I really love you Dad.” I love the fact that Ben is a loving child and expresses it often. Even though I think that I am just “faking it”, it’s times like this where I think I might be doing something right.

So all in all, I like having the option to work from home, but I don’t think that I would want to do it every day. Just on special days, which hopefully will be even more special with more hugs and kisses.

Work...Work..Work

I’ve been at my new job for a month now and things seem to be going pretty well. They haven’t fired me yet! I work with really nice people and I get along with all of them really well. About half of my team has been there six months or less, so I’m not the only new guy.

As for the job itself, I like it so far. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the company sells software solutions for retail businesses. (Customer List) While our main software suite is pretty flexible some of our customers wish to use a more customized interface. That is what my team does. We add functionality to the existing software to make it all fit together really nicely. For example, a auto lube chain, may get all of the functionality they want from out software for sales, inventory and employee scheduling, but they also want something that can track vehicle service history and provide a list of recommended services for a specific vehicle with specific mileage. So my team will take those requirements and create a system that will do what they want and tie it into the retail.net side of things.

We use java, which I used at Teltronics, so the language isn’t really too new, at least the basics of it. I used to have my own office with windows that overlooked Sugarhouse Park, now I’m in the basement of an old building. I went from covered parking to having to park in a lot a block away and walking to the building. Those are the big drawbacks, the positive side far outweighs the negative. The people I work with are great, I have good equipment to work on, we have quality procedures and QA people to help test, and I’m having fun sometimes.

In summary I have better benefits, better pay and a better environment. Teltronics taught me some good things, and it was a great stepping stone, but this job already seems to be better place and better for me. Plus I have done some good work already and feel like I am contributing to the project aka. I'm useful.

I would like to thank all of the little people...

I decided that I was going to write down a few things for which I am thankful. Maybe it’s the time of year that inspired me and maybe it’s just because I am feeling loved and glad for the happy things in my life, so here goes:

• I am very thankful for a wife who cares about me and sacrifices all of her time, energy and dreams to care for our family. I couldn’t do it and sometimes she makes it look easy.
• I am thankful for a family who brought me breakfast in bed.
• I am thankful for being able to enjoy a good football game, once in a while.
• I am thankful for two loving children who continue to love me in spite of all the mistakes that I make while trying to raise them.
• I am thankful for cooler weather, warm blankets, and children to snuggle with.
• I am thankful for all of my family (both sides) and their love and support of me.
• I am thankful for being healthy.
• I am thankful for good entertainment and friends to share it with.
• I am thankful for all of my friends who forgive me for not contacting them all of the time, but who know that I still love them.
• I am thankful for hugs and grandma’s who give them.
• I am thankful for love, and those who give and those who allow me to give it to them.

I am blessed with many things in my life, some large and some small, but I hope that I can try to be thankful for them all.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat....

Some of you may have heard that I was quite lucky in my new job search and I will be starting the new job tomorrow. I'm a little (or a lot) nervous but I think that I will be able to do the job. I think change always makes me a little nervous. It sounds like a good company, but I am sure that I will find out more in the days to come. The company name is Tomax and they do software for retail businesses. The location is pretty good, close to downtown and about six miles closer to home than the last job. (I am always in favor of shortening the commute.)

I can't help feeling that this is a process that I will need to get used to. I think that in the field of Software Engineering it is quite common to get a new job every few years. That seems weird to me but at the same time, perhaps a little exhilarating. Change is hard, but most hard things turn out to be good things in the end. So we'll just wait it out, raise our glasses and make a toast to the future. Hopefully it won't be happening again for at least a couple of more years.

Milestones

Hey look, I'm actually not dead and I can still type. I am not quite sure why I haven't written a post in such a long time, other than the fact that I didn't think that I had anything interesting to write about.

So for the past year, Crystal and I have had a membership to the South Davis Recreation Center aka the Gym. We have had a ton of fun taking Beepers swimming and he loves it. I decided that I wasn't going to let all that money go to waste so I started to go to the gym in the morning before work. I usually spend some time on the treadmill and I have surprised myself at how anyone can do well if they just keep doing it.

Seeing as how I am a freak and I love to keep track of numbers, today marked the 200th mile that I have run or walked on the treadmills at the gym in the last year. I know I toot my own horn a lot on this blog, but I figured that it was a good accomplishment. Here's to the next 200!

Mind Boggling

Today I solved a Rubik's Cube for the very first time! Granted I had to use the instructions to do it, but I still felt like it was somewhat of an accomplishment. I decided to go and get a cube because last weekend my sister was playing with one and was telling me that she has now solved it about three times. Being the official "Geek" of the family, I just couldn't let that slide. (Yes, I know that I am pathetic.) So even though it was something that I always thought would be fun to do, I owe it all to my sister.

Slightly Toasted, but Cold in the Center

Yesterday being the fourth of July meant that we spent quite a bit of time outside. In being my normal lazy self, I didn't put on any sunblock and got a slight sunburn on my neck. It's really not that bad, just enough so that it bothers you from time to time.

This morning I woke up and realized that what I thought might have been mild allergies yesterday, seems to have evolved into a cold. So here I sit looking out the window at the 100°F weather, with a slight sunburn and a cold. It just doesn't feel right. I hate having colds, but having them in the winter seems to make sense. In the summer when everything is bright and hot, just doesn't seem the right time to have a cold. Am I the only one that feels this way?

101 Reaons Why I Love Crystal

So this morning I posted a short blurb on my anniversary and how much it means to me. Well a few hours later I found out that Crystal posted this piece and I feel that it shouldn't go unanswered. So here goes 101 reasons why I love Crystal:

1. She always speaks her mind.
2. She tries to not always communicate like a woman.
3. She encourages me to have a better relationship with my son.
4. She loves me.
5. She thinks that I am handsome even though I am short and round.
6. She always makes sure that I am wearing sunscreen.
7. She is a stupendous cook!
8. She forces me to try new things.
9. She has reintroduced me to Utah and its wonders.
10. She can do math in her head. (Quickly and correctly).
11. She remembers most everything.
12. She keeps the house clean.
13. She does the laundry even though she hates it.
14. She buys me tools, and encourages me to use them.
15. She’s gorgeous and she doesn’t know it. ( Better for me ;) )
16. She encourages me to get exercise.
17. She wants to stay home and be a mom to our children.
18. She is an excellent mom.
19. She feigns interest well when I talk about work or geeky stuff.
20. She always expects me to improve, but has faith that I can do it.
21. She isn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty.
22. She works extremely hard in all things.
23. She really cares about people.
24. She does lots of things for others.
25. She worries about me.
26. She knows how to use power tools.
27. Sometimes she wears pigtails.
28. She lets me play video games even though she doesn’t like them.
29. She makes sure that I dress well.
30. She cut my hair even though she was afraid.
31. She doesn’t yell.
32. She never makes fun of me when I cry.
33. She can predict most of my responses and moods, sometimes just by the tone of my voice.
34. She is very intelligent and helps people with math.
35. She could have had anyone and yet she chose me!
36. She lets me spend time with my friends.
37. She is not easily intimidated.
38. She tells me she loves me all the time.
39. She makes sure to give me a hug and a kiss when I get home from work.
40. She lets me hold the remote.
41. She knows that sometimes playing with Beepers is more important than housework.
42. She reads to Beepers every night.
43. She makes up songs for us to sing as a family.
44. She took me on a hot air balloon ride.
45. She keeps me living within my means.
46. She understands complicated things like insurance.
47. She has good decoration skills and fashion sense.
48. She encourages me to help others.
49. She supported me through school even though that meant that she was basically a single mom for a few years.
50. She makes sure I eat right.
51. When I cook dinner, she is grateful.
52. She likes adventures.
53. She likes to camp.
54. She lets me take pictures of her, even though she hates it.
55. She decides what to eat almost every day. (This is hard to do.)
56. We compliment each other.
57. She was daring enough to marry someone shorter than her.
58. She likes to mow the lawn.
59. She plans trips well.
60. She knows I am a geek and loves me in spite of it.
61. She listens to me.
62. Whenever I see her I always feel my heart skip a beat.
63. She can always make me feel better.
64. When she laughs it brightens my day.
65. She lets me get the car fixed at a garage, when I don’t want to do it.
66. She always smells great. Especially her hair.
67. She can type really fast.
68. She listens to me tell the same stories over and over and rarely tells me that she has heard that one before.
69. She loves to support local and small business.
70. She loves the farmers market.
71. She always finds great deals and saves us a lot of money.
72. She helps me make decisions.
73. She is faster than a speeding bullet, can jump tall buildings in a single bound…well at least to me she can.
74. She is really good with her hands, making crafts, etc.
75. She understands my obsessive personality.
76. She organizes my closet.
77. She knows where things are.
78. She doesn’t get mad at me when I can’t remember where that “one” dish belongs.
79. She can get things off of high shelves for me.
80. She doesn’t own fifty pairs of shoes.
81. She is tough.
82. She makes me feel important and strong.
83. She tells me when I have bad breath.
84. She taught me how to ski.
85. She was the first to take me snowshoeing, X-country skiing and water skiing.
86. She is usually right.
87. She encouraged me to finish school, when I wanted to give up.
88. She gives me a reason to wake up everyday.
89. She plays Tetris with me.
90. She is my psychiatrist.
91. She misses me when I am gone.
92. She calls me everyday at work to tell me she loves me.
93. She lets me spoil her.
94. She has good friends.
95. She has learned to love German food. (Even sauerkraut.)
96. We can talk about anything and I never feel embarrassed or uncomfortable.
97. She went on a second date with me, after the first one failed miserably.
98. She is competitive.
99. She packs my bags when we go places.
100. She knows I am not perfect and loves me anyway.
101. She is everything to me and always will be.

Edit: 102. She bought me an Xbox 360.

Yes, it was her idea first and I am sorry if anyone reading this doesn't care for mushy stuff, but this is how I feel. Happy Anniversary Crystal.

HOLY Matrimony!

Today marks a very important day for me, it is our fifth wedding anniversary! Crystal has endured all of my bad jokes, sarcasm, bad tempers and crazy ideas for five years now. Now that is endurance. Honestly, I am so glad that we are together and I would be really lost without her. When I was younger and tired to picture myself as being married, I thought that it would be good, but I was way wrong, it's been absolutely great. I love my sweet princess and my children, and even though we don't have a lot of money I do believe that makes me the richest man of all. So Crystal, if you are reading this, just know that I am looking forward to spending eternity with you.

My Precioussssssssssss!

I have been trying to make it a habit to go to the gym three times a week, before work. Sometimes I am successful and sometimes I am not, but that is not the point of this post. Before my workout I take all the stuff out of my pockets and remove my wedding ring and I put it in the pocket of my gym bag. I put that stuff in a locker, lock it up and then go on my merry way. After the workout I retrieved the bag and began to empty it's contents. I quickly realized that my wedding ring was missing. I know that I had put it in there, so I searched the bag more thoroughly just to make sure that it wasn't hiding in any of the corners. Much to my dismay it wasn't there. I thought back to earlier that morning and remember that as I was walking from the car to the gym, that was when I began putting the stuff in the gym bag. Oh no! I must have dropped it. I couldn't believe that I lost my ring. To me it's not the fact that it would be semi expensive to replace but even though we have only been married five years, I am attached to it and what it represents. Anyway, I dashed outside to retrace my steps. I started at the main entrance and worked my way back to the car, scanning the ground like a helicopter searching for an escaped convict. Suddenly I spotted something, it was my ring, my precioussssss! Laying right in the middle of the main drive in the parking lot. I can't believe how blessed I am. People must have been walking by it for the last hour and a half and no one picked it up, it didn't get run over even though it was in prime position for cars to drive over it. I still almost can't believe it as I look down and see it resting on my finger. Today was a tiny miracle just for me...

Reading Railroad..

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a fairly addictive personality. After school ended last summer and Crystal reintroduced me to the library, I dove right in and started reading books like crazy. Crystal suggested that I keep track of the books that I read, and that kind of appealed to me, so I did it. The only problem is that with me being a geek, I took it one step further and made a spreadsheet with graphs and everything. As I finished a book the other day I religiously updated my spreadsheet and then glanced at the totals, I was actually surprised to see how much I have done since the beginning of the year. *****Brag Alert****** Since January 1st I have read fourteen books totaling 5564 pages. ****** End Bragging ******

I realize that this represents a significant amount of time but I try to limit myself to times when Crystal and Beepers are either sleeping, or otherwise occupied. I really enjoy it and I am excited to see how much I can accomplish before the year's end.

My Pursuit of Happyness

One of Crystal's friends wrote on her blog many of the things in her life, that define happiness. I think it is amazing at how subjective this subject is, but that is what makes it so fun to talk about. Every person can give the canned answers on what happiness is to them, but when you cut through all of that, it is simply stimulating to find out what makes people truly happy. So here goes....

• Happiness is staring into the eyes of my son and seeing the pure light and energy shining through.
• Happiness is solving the problem that has been puzzling you all day, and jumping out of your chair and yelling for joy!
• Happiness is to know that I never have to be alone.
• Happiness is the smell of Crystal's hair.
• Happiness is the quietness and crispness of the early morning air.
• Happiness is good food and even better company.
• Happiness is eating more Otter Pops than I know I should. ( Just one more. )
• Happiness is fresh bread from a German bakery.

"That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest."

Henry David Thoreau:

The Powers of Observation

Often when I go to public places I like to sit and "people watch". That is I like to observe people, when they aren't really aware of it, and can act normally.(No I am NOT a peeping Tom! Out in public situations only.) Sometimes it's crazy what people will do. The most infamous of which is what happens to us when we get inside of our cars. We have a great sense of privacy in cars, which doesn't really exist. There are windows all around and unless you have tinted windows, everyone else can see you. Most often this only amounts to a small amount of embarassment, such as when you have finished a rousing rendition of Weird Al's "White & Nerdy", and you turn your head to notice the person next to you is staring. Some even suffer the worse fate of getting caught trying to dig out that last elusive booger. Luckily, I haven't been a part of or witnessed anything more serious than that.

Anyway, my original point was on observation. I love to watch Beepers and see all of the stuff that he has learned, just by watching. The other day Crystal told me that he was sitting in the living room and was playing with a clothes hanger. He was sliding it across the floor and at the same time starting saying, "Debit Card". I can only guess that he has learned this from countless trips to the grocery store. I guess that I really need to be careful not to pass on some of my lesser qualities to this great observer. So whatever you do, just remember someone might be watching....

Corporate America Beware!

Last June I purchased a new stick of RAM for our desktop. I purchased the RAM from TigerDirect and for those of you that don't know, TigerDirect sells computer parts at discounted prices, which usually involve a mail-in-rebate. The rebates are often handled by a separate company that specializes in rebates and the processing thereof. I jumped through all of the hoops, crossed all my T's and dotted every i, then sent the rebate in. It was processed and accepted in July 2006, now I just wait for the check. So I waited and I waited, and I waited again. It never came, so I sent them a friendly email. No response. So a few weeks later I did it again, no response. Last week, I sent in the fifth email and over six months have passed and they still have not sent out payment. I was starting to get really frustrated.

Yesterday I was going through my email and noticed an email from this rebate company. It was an advertisement about some special rebate that they had going on, blah blah blah. I was getting ready to delete this piece of junk mail when I noticed that it was in the form of a letter and had the name of the CEO signed at the bottom. What a jerk, I wanted to tell him about how I was being mistreated by his company, and here he was sending me spam. After staring at his name for a few minutes a little dim Christmas light came on in my skull. I had an idea.

I have noticed a trend in most companies when it comes to email addresses, that trend being that most corporate email addresses are some combination of the employee's name. So I feverishly wrote an email explaining my plight and how I have yet to get a response from their so called "Customer Service" department. Now lets say that the CEO's name was Testy McTest and he works for rebate.com. I simply addressed this email to: tmctest@rebate.com, testy.mctest@rebate.com, testymctest@rebate.com, and then I pushed the send button. The chances of one of these addresses being right, is somewhat slim. The chances of my email getting through a SPAM filter are very very slim. The chances of a CEO responding to my email are almost non-existent. I didn't expect anything but I felt better anyway.

So this morning I checked my email, waded through all of the emails asking me if I wanted to enhance myself, or invest in this stock, or win a free laptop, when suddenly my eye fell on the sender of one email. It was from testy.mctest@rebate.com! He sent me a quick note, saying that it would be taken care of and that was that! HA! I couldn't believe it, the long shot payed off..... or at least I hope it does, and if it doesn't I know what email address to send my complaints to.

Equality = Equal?

The book that I am currently reading is titled, "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity" and is written by John Stossel of 20/20. To do a quick summary, this book is a compilation of a bunch of popular myths, propagated by the media, that many of us believe today. In his work as an investigative reporter, John has found out the truth that lies behind what we believe. I must say that even though I am only a few chapters in this book, I would recommend it, but that is not the reason for this post.

In the book John dedicates a whole chapter to the inequalities between men and women. I fancy myself as someone who is semi-enlightened and I agree that women should be treated as equals in our society. While I understand that discrimination still exists, I was appalled by some examples in the book, of people who are fighting this war on sexual discrimination.

There are groups of people who believe with all of their heart that men and women should be exactly equal with no differences whatsoever. For example there is a professor of law at George Washington University, that encourages his students to 'sue' people for discrimination. In his own words it's a "good class project." One of the lawsuits that he encouraged, alleged that having "ladies night" at local bars was discriminatory. For those of you that don't know many bars have a ladies night where ladies can get in at no or little cost. This is to attract women to the bar because statistically speaking, men far outnumber the women when it comes to bar visitations. Men enjoy these nights because it attracts more women, and women are motivated to go because of the significant benefit. Everybody is happy, right? Well, not everyone, because these students and their professor, decided it wasn't right. They filed a lawsuit and they won. Now in Washington D.C. it is illegal to have a "ladies night". So now there are even more lonely men in the bars in D.C.

Another great example is when the students decided that it was discrimination for a hair salon to charge different prices for mens and womens haircuts. To quote from the book,

"Charging women more for haircuts is a common sense adjustment to a real sex difference: Taking care of women's hair takes more time. Not always, but often enough that it's prudent to have different prices. The salons don't price their work to hurt women; they price it based on how much time they spend with female customers. If they did charge women "unfair" prices, the free market would punish them- women wouldn't go to these salons."

He goes on to explain how, that if price regulations did come, then certain salons, might stop servicing women altogether, in order to save costs. Plus the cost of lawsuits are passed on to the customer. The professor and his students see no problem with this and are eager to pursue.

I guess the thing that bothers me the most is the blatant disregard for logical thinking. Anyone with half a brain can see, that in most cases there are in fact differences between men and women. In fact, I am very glad there are. But in their efforts to bring equality to the equation they don't seem to care about that and the fact that they are hurting everyone else. They choose to focus on the mundane instead of perhaps the topics that might make a difference.

So in my opinion, Equality doesn't necessarily mean being exactly equal, it means having the fair chance to do what you choose to do (within reason, criminally speaking, etc.). So choose what you want to do, but don't go charging me thirty dollars for a haircut, because I don't have hardly any hair left.