the personal site and blog of a geek named Nick

For about the last two weeks I’ve been trying to find a copy of “Invincible” on DVD at a local movie rental locale. That’s an off the wall intro, but it’s what I could come up with. There were a couple of the normal previews, some interesting and others just, “eh”. Then I saw clip reel of Disney flicks that you’ll sometime catch of studios self-advertising and I started to notice the word “blue” appear consistently. It was then I realized it wasn’t a studio advertisement, but an announcement to the uninitiated of the next-gen disc format that Disney had chosen in Blu-ray.

Personally if I had to choose a format I really don’t know which one I’d go with. I’m a lot more interested in high-def now, having played the same 360 game at home on the old 32-inch and then on the high-def screen at Best Buy. It’s just amazing the picture clarity and brilliance of color you have with high-def, after all it is high definition. But at the same time having DVR and using a Netflix/Blockbuster service I think I’m more interested in IPTV than either of the high-def formats. It’s just cool that right now I can jump on my 360 and download a number of movies or TV shows. I do have to admit though, that I can watch the Transformers trailer in 720p over and over and never get tired of it. (I can’t say that isn’t a little of the kid in me screaming, “That’s so cool!”)

Yeah, that wasn’t much of a commitment either way, the ad just got me thinking. But I say if we have to have a new disc format, and I can’t say that it wouldn’t be nice, that we need to make a longer lasting, higher capacity disc. But for video let’s concentrate on DRM-free HD VOD aka “if I buy it, I own it” high-definition video/movies on demand. Sorry, but I couldn’t resist the acronym soup.

It’s always kind of hard to start these retrospective “where we are and where we’re going” types of posts and yet I insist on continuing to write them. But hey, it’s the end of very eventful year and in that there’s good cause for retrospect. In that same regard it’s the beginning of year that’s set to bring all types of new adventures for family and friends alike. Put an ending together with a chance at a new beginning and you have the perfect recipe to get all reflective and self-examining. For a long time I was against the New Year’s Resolution saying, “Why wait? Make the change now…”, and all the other anti-establishment babble that I could manage to come up with. And don’t get me wrong, I’m still very much about if you see something that needs to change “don’t put off until tomorrow…” But there is something to be said for a chance to reevaluate things and for a new beginning, and what better time than a new year to stop and look at where you’ve come in the last year and see that in context of where you want to be. There are a lot of things I want to see happen in this year and a lot of things I want to do, and I’ve rarely done wrong setting goals for myself and if not a goal per se, at least thinking through those things. And it’s that which I’ve taken some time to do today and I’ve probably come up with a few more things than are feasible to see happen but it rarely hurts to try. So while we started 2006 excited about what had happened for our family and where we were headed, this year is starting with a focus and strong sense of determination to make the goals we’ve set for ourselves happen. There’s a lot of ambiguity kicking around, but it’s because of a lot of things are ideas and concepts at this point. And while those different things are tied to specific ideas, the different things, both personal and professional, are being prayerfully considered but still aren’t set in stone. Even still, what 2007 could be is exciting, and I’m looking forward to where the ride will take me and my family.

note: this entry was started on 1/1/07 and completed on 1/17/07. final edits were made to better flesh out and expand the initial thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

I just thought it worth noting that over the past weekend I was in two stores, one a department store and the other an electronics store both of which with PS3s just sitting on store shelves. Funny, I thought the PS3 was the greatest thing going and yet no one is really buying. You can’t even make some extra money with them on eBay - and that tells you something.

12/29/2006

12/31/2006

As the title suggests I left my new job for my old job. I’m late posting this seeing as the move happened early December, but hey… it happens. Not a whole lot to report on this front other than I’m excited about it in a way. It didn’t take me long to realize what I had been doing wasn’t really what I want to do at all. And while this is something that I still don’t see myself doing for an extended time, the move really opens room to move forward on the things I really want to do and see happen. There just wasn’t enough benefit after it was all said and done, when the old job allowed better time to spend with Lisa and Maggie together (the new job had me seeing Maggie in the morning and Lisa at night), as well for school to get done right. Things never go quite like we plan, but we do the best with what we have and trust God with the rest.

Approximately 25 hours ago I walked off stage after performing with The Lucky Black.

I must say that I had a great time. I can’t say that I don’t get to play a lot, I actually get to play on a near weekly basis at church and while it’s great and I love it, it’s just a completely different experience and atmosphere. So when the chance came my way, I jumped at the chance to play music with person who wrote it again. There’s just something about hearing lyrics sung from the heart that wrote them, not to mention getting to be a part of that kind of experience.

I can’t say the performance wasn’t rocky, but with one practice to go on that’s not too bad. But that’s not to say I wouldn’t do it again in a heartbeat. I didn’t realize how much I missed playing live… and while I love playing at church, the next opportunity I have to play live again can’t come soon enough.

When you can’t find the light,
That got you through the cloudy days,
When the stars ain’t shinin’ bright,
You feel like you’ve lost you’re way,
When those candle lights of home,
Burn so very far away,
Well you got to let your soul shine,
Just like my daddy used to say.

He used to say soulshine,
It’s better than sunshine,
It’s better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Hey now people don’t mind,
We all get this way sometime,
Got to let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

I grew up thinkin’ that I had it made,
Gonna make it on my own.
Life can take the strongest man,
Make him feel so alone.
Now and then I feel a cold wind,
Blowin’ through my achin’ bones,
I think back to what my daddy said,
He said “Boy, in the darkness before the dawn:”

Let your soul shine,
It’s better than sunshine,
It’s better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Yeah now people don’t mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.
Sometimes a man can feel this emptiness,
Like a woman has robbed him of his very soul.
A woman too, God knows, she can feel like this.
And when your world seems cold, you got to let your spirit take control.

Let your soul shine,
It’s better than sunshine,
It’s better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Lord now people don’t mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

Oh, it’s better than sunshine,
It’s better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Yeah now people don’t mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

Well I heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to her kitchen chair
And she broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Well baby I’ve been here before
I’ve seen this room and I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
But Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Well there was a time when you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show that to me do ya?
But remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew is Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
And it’s not a cry that you hear at night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

I can’t say that these last two weeks have been my most shining moment, but it is a new job after all. I’m not sure what it is, but I just can’t seem to quite get the hang of a few things.

Yeah, this is way late. But who cares… I as really planning to add more and better flesh out some of the thoughts and ideas. But life is busy, and work doesn’t provide much time for personal blabbering so here we are. But at least I can say things have gotten better. That’s something, right?

So I think I have decided to learn programming. This is a unique irony because without a programming class that I took nothing from in high school, I wouldn’t have the limited depth of knowledge I have of web design now. Irony. But is has been the web and how I’ve wanted to more without knowing how to express it or begin to try because of my aforementioned limited knowledge. At one point this actually led me to think about beginning to learn PHP, but the resources I could find seemed to require a base level of programming understanding that I didn’t possess. Please note: I took nothing from the high school class. To be fair I may have been my own worst enemy and not have given myself a chance to really try and may have given up far to easily. But for now I’ll keep blaming it on something else, it makes the rest of this sound better. Fast forward a few years past my false start into PHP to a new web with these things called Podcasts and it is here that my desire to learn programming has been rekindled.

I’ve been listening to the TWiT network for the last few years and have recently been listening to the Open Source offering, FLOSS Weekly. As the title implies it profiles software and personalities in the Open Source community. Admittedly it didn’t grab my interest initially but I’ve recently put it back on the iPod and have found myself making it a regular on the playlist. I guess it was the Ruby on Rails birthday episode that really piqued my interest in programming again. But I still told myself that I just didn’t have what it takes or that it would still be too much of a gap to overcome to get started. The episode 11 rolled around in which Leo and DiBona profiled Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python. They did the hows, wheres, and whys of Python which was very cool, but then they did the obligatory, “And for people who want to learn?”, and while I listened it wasn’t something I thought was relevant until they started describing some of the guides for newbies and I think van Rossum basically said, “and it someone is completely new to programming…”, and as you can imagine I was listening. I think it was during that part of the conversation that Leo mentioned that he uses Python as a starting point into programming for his daughter and if I was listening before I was hooked now.

Work has been keeping me plenty busy. In fact I started this post a couple of weeks ago and it wasn’t until earlier tonight that I downloaded the Python setup. So it may not be an all-day, all-night project but I’m at least going to give a decent go to something that I could really have a good time with and be able to use. We’ll see how it goes from here, and as much as I think about it I’ll update my progress here. Who knows, maybe I’ll become super-coder and learn to actually do neat stuff with my website!

So I survived my first week of my new job at “Large Telecommunications Provider” that shall, for purposes of job preservation, remain nameless and heretofor shall be referred to as “Work”.

But I did in fact make it out alive. I’ve had a decent ramp up, though. My first day was actually July 17th on which we started 3 weeks of training. Then followed by 3 more weeks of getting our feet wet with actual on the job training in a reasonably controlled enviroment. Which brings us to Tuesday, August 29th also known as my first real day on the job.

Honestly things weren’t all that bad, but the first bump in the road is that my main manager was out on vacation that first week. My core job function is the set-up of new customers with focus on upselling features and add-on products in addition to core services. While this would be both great and profitiable in a perfect world, these aren’t always the types of situations we face though we are still expected to try and find a sales opportunity in all customer interactions. I had my fair share of customer service situations, as well as general complaints, and not to mention enough things that I hadn’t learned about yet to make me wonder if it was all worth it.

But to spare all the gruesome details that I really can’t remember anymore, I did make it out alive. Not with quite as many sales as I would like, but if I’m looking for redemption in it I did lead my team in sales one of the days. Beginner’s Luck I guess! We’ll see how things shape up in Week 2…

Note: Post started 9/3, finished early AM 9/8 - Labor Day, head cold, and appointments delayed completion.