Twenty Ten
January 1, 2010Twenty Ten sounds cooler than Two Thousand (and) Nine.
Happy New Year.
His Name is Robert Paulson
December 17, 2009What is the world at 4 AM?
A void.
I’m not convinced that there really is a 4 AM. Sure, the clock reaches that hour. The hand continues to reach and reach until it finally hits 5 AM, when the flow of time and space are restored.
Nothing really happens at 4. Cold, fog, rain, heat, whatever is there, but the world is still. Sometimes I push it to 4:30 just because I have no reason to wake up at 4. I found a way to work that was a little quicker and I tend to skip my computer until I get home. It’s dark and the world exists, but there’s nothing there. At 5 I walk out the door and head to my car, where I sling my messenger bag and keyboard and energy drink into the passenger seat of the car and head off to the land of technical support.
Suddenly I’m transported to work. There isn’t much traffic at 5 AM on the path I take, even in this large city.
There is no spoon.
The world seems slow until the sun rises. I wake up around 4 each morning for 5 days out of the week, but I definitely enjoy the two days where I am allowed to wake up after the sun.
I listen to my iPod a lot at work. It just depends on what I’m doing that day, or what I’m in the mood to listen to. Sometimes I just listen to the activity around me, and sometimes I block it out with my iPod and escape into my work. I always work as hard as I can. After being without work for over a year, I wouldn’t know how to be lazy at work.
I like working early in the day and getting off mid-afternoon. It gives me some time during the day to exist. Middle of the day shifts just seem to stick you with this life where you have no time to yourself for 5 days out of the week.
I’m in the mood to do two things: Play SNES and watch Fight Club. Must achieve these things ASAP.
I have discovered Skull Candy earbuds. Half price on Black Friday at RadioShack, and their quality fits their name. Candy for your skull, indeed.
Life is not boring.
Busy Busy Busy Bee
November 20, 2009Just a quick update… work is going good; now that I’m out of training I’m working a pretty early shift that leaves me the rest of the day to do whatever I need, which is cool.
LIFE IS BUSY.
Operating Systems Oh My
October 26, 2009Windows 7 was released on the 22nd and so far I can say this: I hate their commercials.
However, on the 22nd Apple dropped out a hilarious (and surprisingly accurate) commercial about it. It’s called Broken Promises and you can watch it here: http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/
My excitement lies with the release of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). Three days to go and I’m making my checklist for things to back up. I’ll probably run a fresh install and try the ext4 filesystem. This pretty much means that the weekend before I start my new job will be spent geeking out on my laptop on and off.
Car Troubles and Repairs
October 19, 2009Our car has been a lot of “fun” since we moved to Houston (it was a lot of “fun” before, too). Right before the move my car died out and I had to have my alternator replaced (yay $300 + oil change while I was there) on a Saturday morning. There was a lot of fun with that… and a lot of tweeting from my phone.
After getting here I had to run some diagnostics on it at a local shop to find out why the car was dying while running, and why the battery kept needing a jump. It turns out that a previous owner had a problem “fixed” by working around it. The CCRM was bad (controls the A/C compressor, fuel pump, and some other things) and instead of replacing it, a wire was put in place to allow the A/C compressor to bypass the CCRM. The problem with this? The A/C compressor never turned off.
The shop gave me a huge quote for the repairs but it turns out that they were definitely going the most expensive way possible. The wire was removed and I was able to replace the CCRM myself for right around $100 for the part (and a lot of frustration with the car). Another part was the PCV assembly, but I found that one for about $38 and popped it in.
There are still a few kinks to work out but fixing it myself was nice (and cheap). When people ask me where I learned what I do know about cars, I tell them I learned from all of my car problems. =P
Mechanical Toast
October 9, 2009Car’s toast. Job interview next week. Applying to places like crazy. Stressed. Irritated. Calm. Relaxed.
I paid $120 to be told that my car needs about $1500 worth of repairs. Note that this is AFTER the first mechanic never showed up (twice), and the second mechanic turned out to be joke just looking for a sucker.
I don’t know, it’s a mess and it’s pretty stressful, but stuff happens. One way or another we’re going to make things work out. I have an interview coming up this week and I have been applying to other places as well, and this isn’t going to stop me. Not that I have a choice…
Knowing that we’re going to make it work out is what keeps me calm.
Quick Update From Houston
October 3, 2009We’re in Houston now!
We’ve been here since September 25th and we’ve been crazy busy. You know, all of that fun after-moving stuff.
Check back later for some more updates. I’d like to get out and go crazy with the camera at some point.
Almost Moving Day
September 22, 2009Moving day is almost here. We’re driving out Friday morning (the earlier the better).
Stay tuned for updates… soon.
Still Alive
September 14, 2009There’s so much to say and so many blog post drafts I have sitting unfinished. Time is short and the move is almost here. Hopefully I’ll have a better update soon.
I hate not at least posting some kind of update.
STILL ALIVE.
My Feelings About Moving
August 16, 2009In a recent post I said I would update with my feelings about the move to Houston. Here they are, as well as I can put into a blog post anyway:
Just over five years ago I met the love of my life online. She lived in Houston, TX and I lived near Atlanta, GA. We knew each other for a year before meeting in person for the first time. The day after I met her in person, I proposed to her. Call me crazy for doing it, call her crazy for saying yes, but that’s how it went! We traveled back and forth to see each other (yay for airplanes) for too long, but it definitely wasn’t enough.
We decided together that she would move here to marry me (rather than me moving there). We felt that it was the best thing for us and so we went with it. We don’t have any regrets in that! She moved away from her family and friends to be with me; she loves me quite a lot. <3
It has been almost three years since we got married. Since then we’ve grown a lot together! We’ve even had a little boy of our own, who is amazing in so many ways. Noah has been in this world for a year and a half, and my family has been there since before we even knew we were pregnant. They were there through the entire pregnancy and up through now.
I’m very happy to have had my family so close for so long. I feel fortunate in that, good and bad times. I do hope that they feel the same way.
Lynn and I made the decision to stay here for the last three years together. Together we have made the difficult decision to move off to Houston to be with her family. The decision was not made lightly as there was a LOT to consider! We don’t want it to seem like we’re trading out our families; my family is here and hers is there. It isn’t about a “trade” we want to make every so often to live near her family or mine. We took a lot of things into consideration: Family, jobs, long term living, etc.
Where we live right now we’re looking at roughly 15% unemployment. Yes, that can change (and probably will because of a few things happening here right now) but at the time it is 15% and not really looking up. It could be years before things get better here, and I’ve had two interviews in the last year. I posted about one, and another one happened right after we decided to move. The interview didn’t go very well. I’ve been at the “I’ll do anything” point for a job for a long time and I don’t think my family realizes this. I’ll do anything and I’ve had two failed interviews. We’re running out of options here as far as money goes.
Houston, TX has roughly half of the unemployment rate here, and that is an amazing difference. No, this isn’t 100% about working, but that part does matter. Lynn’s going to be by her family, one (or both) of us have better job opportunities there, and the end result is to be better off in life. We want out of debt, we want to be living in a better place, and we want Noah to have a better life. Unfortunately moving there puts us further away from my family, but we don’t know how long we’ll be there or how long they’ll be living here (mom is always talking about how she wants to move out of their current house).
Life goes on, things change, time passes by, etc. etc. but I can say that I am happy with our decision to move, and I have no doubt that this is the right thing for us. Sometimes the right choice isn’t the easy choice, and it sure would be a lot easier just to stay here another year than to pack up and move off.
I love both of our families, and in the end all I want is support in our decision from both sides.
