It had to happen sooner or later. It was unavoidable. It's only natural. I am finally surrounded by Creatives.

I got a new job in the Marketing Department at internet services company, which was bought by international computer conglomerate earlier this year. Internet services company has been in the throes of rebranding its entire product line to that of international computer conglomerate ever since. My new job is as a web developer for the Marketing Department, building code for websites and e-mail campaigns, and helping support the Sales Department.

I feel at home being surrounded by Creatives. The entire Marketing Department is full of Creatives. It's like coming home to the mothership. Sure, there's all the stress of business (deadlines, product launches, partnerships, etc), but so far it's all offset by the creative aspect.

I'm a Creative, even though I do Logical things. But even in the midst of Function, Form prevails.

¶ 2:40 PM 0 comments

Yep. :-D

¶ 4:35 PM 2 comments

X-Games has nothing on systems administration. Nothing. It should be an Olympic sport.

When you're dealing with a mission critical server farm, you have to have excellent hand-eye coordination, manual dexterity, mental fortitude, physical agility, and an extremely fit cardio-pulmonary system. Because when the server goes down, the gloves come off, and the wrist support brace goes on.

As an adrenaline junkie, I rather enjoy the rush. Survival mode kicks in. My heart starts racing. My breathing increases. My eyes go into tunnel vision. I'm typing so fast by fingers can barely keep up. Then there are the obstacles in this technological steeplechase: the phone calls ("The server's down!"), the mysterious problems ("Why do I have two database processes now?!"), the imminent danger ("Every minute we're down costs thousands of dollars!"). I jump over, dodge around, duck under. All in pursuit of the ultimate prize: a well-oiled, fully-functioning server.

But all athletes must retire sometime. The body and psyche can only go so far before fatigue, and even chronic injury, sets in. (More on this later.)

¶ 11:39 AM 2 comments

Amy's gone
And time rolls on
How far? how fast? how long?

The last time we saw Amy
She was headed for the shore
Fighting off the volatile gray skies
She said now begins forever
And that no one knows their time
We bid farewell not knowing
That might be our last goodbye

Amy was a fighter
She cut like Cassius Clay
She burned like a fire
Despite these rains
Where time was a question
She only knew one song
She's singing, "How far, how fast, and how long?"

Salvation is a fire
In the midnight of the soul
It lights up like a can of gasoline
Yeah, she's a freedom fighter
She's a stand up kind of girl
She's out to start a fire
In a bar code plastic world

Amy was a fighter
She cut like Cassius Clay
She burned like a fire
Despite these rains
Where time was a question
She only knew one song
She's singing, "How far, how fast, and how long?"

When everything stops moving
And I stop to catch my breath
And ride my train of thought
All the way round
My thoughts return to Amy
And the fire she's begun
She came when we were freezing
And left us burning up

Amy was a fighter
She cut like Cassius Clay
She burned like a fire
Despite these rains
Where time was a question
She only knew one song
She's singing, "How far, how fast, and how long?"

[Switchfoot, "Amy's Song", 1999]

¶ 12:27 PM 2 comments

Whatever happened to the television advertisement jingles, those little 3-second tidbits that get stuck in your head for a whole day -- or two? These days, you hear contemporary music on top of some fancy-schmancy graphics or computer effects. Whatever happened to "Frosted Lucky Charms, they're magically delicious"? Or "My Buddy, My Buddy, wherever I go heee goes"? Or "We're American Airlines, something special in the air"? If you're my age or older, chances are you heard those jingles in your head as you read them.

Then I have to wonder what happened to all those now-unemployed jingle writers. What are they doing now? Are they passing on the lost art of Jingle Writing? Are they teaching it to the next generation of jingle writers? Are they flipping burgers at the burger joint on the corner, humming catchy little tunes incessantly to the sizzle of fake meat?

¶ 10:19 AM 1 comments

Now that I actually have a chance to stick my head above water to breathe, I will.

It's been, oh, about 4 months since I last blogged (almost to the day, I guess). A lot's happened in the last 4 months. Let's see if I can summarize into a few succinct bullet points.

• We at unnamed financial services company moved our offices from one run-down, defunct old building to a much less run-down, defunct newer building. That transition took about 3 weeks to really settle in.
• We at unnamed financial services company wrapped up some major projects, which in turn spawned a whole nest of other projects.
• We at unnamed financial services company have a new Director of Information Technology... me. :-)
  
• My wife and I just celebrated our 6-month anniversary. Has it already been 6 months??
• My wife and I do web design/development services on the side, and we currently have 4 web sites in the pipe, not to mention other graphic design work, and art which my wife is currently putting together for a show.
• I went to my first local kite club meeting in well over a year, and took my wife with me. She got to meet the crew and we taught her how to fly some of my kites.
• My wife and I are currently on a detox diet for nine days. Next Tuesday is the ninth day.
  

Wow, that was pretty succinct.

So between all that and having time for each other (which we decided was most important), we're still (amazingly) getting out periodically.

I guess that's it for now.

¶ 9:22 AM 0 comments

My wife and I have been spending time with one of my closest friends, who is temporarily back in the States from overseas, and as they've been getting to know each other, my friend pointed out to my wife, "I've never seen him so happy." As I pondered that, I realized that it's true: I've never been happier. I'm married to the girl of my dreams (each day reveals another aspect of her that I was looking for but not realizing I was looking for it), who is the best wife a man could have; I have a great job where the work I do matters; I have a great house in a great neighborhood; I have a happy dog and a content cat.

As another year goes by, and as I look back, I have seen significant change. And in that, I see much happiness. Do I dread my birthday this year? Maybe a little. But only because there's still so much to do, both for myself and for the greater good, before I leave this homey little planet.

¶ 9:58 AM 1 comments

Or is it a "feature"?

Perform the following steps on your favorite Microsoft Windows computer and make up your own mind:

1. Right-click on the desktop. Select New->Text Document.
2. Hit Enter to accept the default file name.
3. Open your new text document. The file should open in Microsoft Notepad.
   
4. Type the following sentence as is (but without the quotes): "this app can break".
5. Save your new text document, and close Notepad.
6. Open your new text document again, and make note of what you see.

QED.

¶ 4:32 PM 1 comments

I'll tell you what -- all-inclusive is the way to go. You show up at the airport, you show up at the hotel, you leave the hotel, and you go home. You don't really have to bring any money or monetary instruments. You go, you enjoy, then you go home.

My (new) wife and I were noticing on our honeymoon last week that for a whole week, we were treated like royalty, even at the wedding. This is an extremely important observation for both of us because we're both so very service-oriented, and it was nice to be served for a time. More on this later.

What was it like? For any of you faithful readers who have seen the brochure for the resort hotel where we stayed, that brochure did absolutely no justice to the actual place. A few sheets of full-color cardstock could neither accurately capture nor effectively convey the beauty and restfulness of the resort.

How was the weather? It was absolutely beautiful. Mid- to upper-80s all week long (low-30s, if you're counting in metric), bright sunny skies, partly to mostly cloudy late in the day. We had a couple of brief thunderstorms roll through late in the evening, but if you ask me, that's the perfect time to go play in the rain.

What did you do there? We ate a lot, and we slept a lot, and that was pretty much it. Our principal goal was to rest, and rest we did. There' s something to be said for having a time where you can take the watch off (not that we wear watches), turn off the cell phone (can't get service there anyway), and lob the alarm clock out the window (figuratively). The Mexican culture (and indeed, probably all of Latin America is similar) is one of rest and play, in stark contrast to rushing everywhere according to very strict and clearly defined schedules as we do here in the States.

Did you have good Mexican food? Yes and no. Yes, we did, but no, Mexican food was not the focus. The hotel is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, and it's designed to be kind of isolated. As such, there are several restaurants on the property, and each one of them serves haute cuisine of various styles, including Mexican, pan-Asian, International, and Italian gourmet cuisines. For the foodie who needs/wants a relaxing vacation, this is the place to go.

I want to see pictures! We took two rolls of pictures (54 exposures total). That's it?? Yes. And most of them were of us relaxing or being relaxed. I mean really, how do you capture true beauty? It's very difficult. As Marvin Gaye says, "Ain't nothin' like the real thing, baby!" In a very real sense, we were too distracted by the beauty of the place to be bothered to try to capture it.

We're back home now, and I'm back to work. My lass is getting settled into our house, and I'll be helping her with that all this week. Yay! :-)

¶ 10:27 AM 3 comments

Happy New Year?!?! No, I'm not 3 months late.

Before April 1 was called April Fool's Day, it was the calendar new year. In fact, the reason it's called April Fool's Day is because when the calendar changed from the New Year being in spring to being in the dead of winter, people would play jokes on the ones who didn't make the switch, and vice versa. That is how we got April Fool's Day.

Today is a different kind of New Year. Today, I'm getting married. It's been four months since I asked my girlfriend to marry me. It's been four (long) months of planning and waiting, waiting and planning. And that day is finally here, when she and I will join hands and join hearts before the Creator and His Son.

It's still pretty surreal. On one level, it's a no-brainer. On another level, there's that little voice (which I've come to profoundly hate in the last few months) that says, "Do you know what you're getting into?? Do you know you won't survive??" and I just have to tell it to go back to where it belongs (use your imagination). On another level, I'm completely relaxed, but on another level, I'm really really nervous. I'm told this is normal.

Anyway, I'm off to get stuff ready to take down to the place for setup.

¶ 10:56 AM 2 comments