Blogs for December 2007

WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 | WEEK 3 | WEEK 4 | WEEK 5

Week ending December 30th, 2007
Hope you had an excellent Christmas! Mine was fun! I have been on vacation since the 22nd and have had nothing short of a blast! I have mixed in being lazy (catching up on episodes of Stargate Atlantis), watching movies, eating popcorn and ice cream bars and mixing in other fun stuff (hanging out with friends). As I sit here and write this, I just stuffed myself with spaghetti and am ready to take a nap, lol.

Friday morning I played Golf with my friends. I did really well on the front nine and actually had a birdie on the back nine and then just sorta got lazy and ended up with a really BAD back nine. I just think I need to play more and perhaps buy some new clubs. Mine are at least 9 years old. That was really fun.

So you know that I haven't raced since August. In fact, I haven't even looked at the RR since then. Well on Thursday morning I went out to change the oil on the Bandit (I am doing some Palomar runs next week) and decided to start and warm up the RR. Turn the key, hit the ignition....and....NOTHING! D'oh! The battery was dead. I hooked up the charger and let it charge for a few hours then went back to the garage to check. Fired up first time. Man that bike sounds so good. I know a lot of people love the V-Twin sound and hey, if that's your bag of tricks, enjoy. On a personal level I love the sound the inline 4 makes (not to mention pound for pound I-4s simply blow away V-twins. If I wanted to ride a Harley on the track I'd ride one, haha)

Speaking of racing, I haven't decided what I am going to do for 2008. I know that right now I am enjoying (and using) the extra money I have saved. I didn't realize how much I was spending at the track until I stopped going. I was spending on average at least $800.00 for one day of racing. More if I practiced on Sat (then it goes to around $1,300!). So with the extra money I have put it into my 401k and started saving for a house. I've even stocked my fridge and cupboards so maybe now I'll get fat :)

Remarkably, I haven't been skipping the gym though I have been going to the one closer to home while I am on vacation. It's smaller than the gym that is close to work and doesn't have the free weights I want but it's ok, I am still able to get in a good workout and feel good.

Almost ended up at Big Bear last Thursday but didn't get the notice in time. I'd rather go to Mammoth (Tim, where are ya buddy?? Hint hint!). Definitely have the urge to hit the slopes and soak in the serenity that is snow, mountains and lots of big green trees.

Well, I was going to toss in more about 2007 but all of that is contained in the blog. Some exciting things have happened and I can't really complain. God has been great to me and blessed me in so many ways that I really don't have anything to whine about.

Have a great, safe and HAPPY New Years and see you in 2008!!!

Week ending December 23rd, 2007
Well this was an interesting week. As is normally expected, most everyone took their vacations so a lot of people were out of the office. It was good though as I got to get my hands on a lot of equipment and perform a lot of technical work with some of the switches and back end storage. It's really very complicated equipment and every day I learn so much. I am really thankful to finally be in a career that I can embrace fully. I totally enjoy what I do and I am excited to go to work every day.

Christmas is on Tuesday, have you been naughty or nice? I'd like to think for the most part, I've been "very good." Haha. Looking back on 2007 it's been a wildly interesting year. I left my own company and that was probably the biggest relief. Everyone says "You had it easy running your own business, why did you leave? You had so much free time!" No offense but you can easily tell those individuals have never run their own business. I rarely had time off and the work was boring me to tears. Add on top of that my business partner and I did not see eye to eye on many things, it just made sense for me to move on. It was probably the best move of my life. It was a complete career change and something I had been looking forward to for a long time.

In my personal life, things just couldn't be better. As I have mentioned before, when I became a Christian I knew that I would lose some of my friends. Many didn't understand the change in my behavior. Gone was the abrasive person I used to be. My interest have changed...from pleasing myself by doing whatever I felt to pleasing God. But what friends I have lost, and there haven't been that many, I have gained ten-fold. God truly does bless those who are living in His sprit and His will. I have met and befriended so many great people that I can't help but feel blessed. Again there are so many aspects that I just don't talk about here on the blog, but rest assured God is taking excellent care of me.

As for riding/racing, there's been little of that since I moved and to be honest, I don't miss it that much. I do ride the Bandit to work but haven't taken the RR to the track in some time. I think the thing that has weighed on my mind the most is simply finances. Yes, I can afford to race. I won't be ultra-competitive though and that's the thing. I don't have any major support and well, since I am not 19 there aren't going to be too many sponsors interested in helping me out. On average I was spending close to $1,000.00 per race weekend and it would be more if I spent all Saturday practicing. I love riding, no doubt, but it's not my life. There are so many more important things in life for sure.

My spiritual growth has been amazing. I finished the entire bible earlier in the year. It took me the entire year to do it but I made it a point to read every single word. To top it off, when I finished I started all over again. Now that I have finished my second reading through the NT I am back on the OT. With the move came a new Church. It's much smaller than Saddleback but definitely what I was looking for. The Pastor is great and I just can't say enough great things about him. A smaller, more personal Church fit exactly what I needed. I've also tried to minister as much as possible wherever I can. There are some neat stories about that if you read back trough the blog.

The move South was probably the biggest change after the new career. I had lived in Orange County all of my adult life so it's all I really knew. I had been to San Diego many times and loved the area. What I love even more are the people. It's so much more "laid back" here. People are less stressed out and even on the freeway I notice it. It's definitely different from the "Keeping up with the Jones" attitude that seems to infect every part of OC. It wasn't all bad though. Some of my greatest memories were there.

In June I went home to see my family and attend my High School reunion. It was the first time I had been home since my mom died and it was great to see some happy, familiar faces. Especially friends I hadn't connected with since High School. My sister moved to a place right on the lake so I got to do some fishing, played golf, BBQ'd with the family and had a relaxing time.

There were also some rough times this year as well. My friend lost her husband and I helped her move to New Mexico where, by all appearances she seems to be doing fine and adjusting well. Then in October we had the wildfires here that came extremely close to my place (and I live on the beach!). But again, there was also a silver lining in this cloud and that was the support from the local community was tremendous. As I pulled into Qualcomm Stadium and saw the piles and piles of donated gear I thought to myself "I am definitely in the right community and....I am 'home'....."

Well that's about it for now. I'll save a little more for next week's blog which will be the last of 2007. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and I'll chat with you next week. In the meantime, STAY SAFE! I'm going to enjoy my vacation with a little golf and a lot of FUN!!

Week ending December 16th, 2007
Awesome weekend! I just got back from the San Diego Charger game. One of our vendors had some extra tickets so they invited our team to go. We had about 20 people at the game. I have been to a few NFL games before but haven't been in about 6 years, so I jumped at the chance. (pics HERE).

We met at our office around 10am and then car-pooled to the stadium. From there we hung out and chatted a bit while waiting for the catered PHIL'S BBQ! (The BEST BBQ in San Diego!). We had ribs, chicken, corn, potato salad, beans, breads, etc. It was great! After that we headed over and got our seats and watched the game. Now, I am not the world's greatest Charger fan but I did have a great time. The Chargers won 51-14. Their fans were mostly well behaved though there was a fight a few stands over. I didn't drink anything (not much of a drinker if you know me) so I was the designated driver by default. The one bad part is, while I was at the game the Bucs were playing and ran back a kickoff for a TD for the first time in club history and I missed it. Aw well, that's how it goes :) I still had a great time hanging out with my friends from work.

Speaking of work, all last week was spent moving our SAN3 and SAN4 equipment from one side of the lab to it's new location on the other side. We pulled more fiber cable than I can count (miles of it) and had to restack and reroute all of it. We got most of that done last week so this week will be spent plugging everything back in and mapping/masking/zoning. I'm really excited about it as I will get to learn a ton about how everything works (on top of what I have already learned) so it's good stuff. I'm learning so much that now I am teaching people from other departments.

So this week was pretty event-filled and fun. I did not get to Church on Saturday but that was because they were having a "Living Nativity" scene and they weren't having the Saturday service. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week as I really enjoy listening to Pastor Bob Botsford. He's really, really good and inspires me to greater heights.

Well that is about it for this week. I'm on vacation starting this Friday so I am not sure if I'll be filling out the blog. I will if I am around but I DO plan on getting in some snowboarding. I heard the show is starting to pile up at Mammoth and I can not wait to get there :)

Week ending December 9th, 2007
So how goes it??? This week was pretty quiet. Mostly working out, taking care of a few things around the condo and basically vegging. Watched a few movies and hung out with friends.

Tomorrow at work I have to give a presentation on one of the projects I am working on. I am not nervous at all. I thought I would be but I have a pretty good handle on this solution and I think things will go fairly well. Work has been going excellent so I have no complaints.

Last Sunday night I went to see Ozzy and Rob Zombie. Most people who know me ask "Are you supposed to be fans of those bands?" You can listen to the music and still keep things in a Christian perspective. Ozzy does say "God bless you all" very much. I'm not a huge Rob Zombie fan but I like some of the songs. Yes, there was some misbehavior but I didn't pay much attention to it. I wanted one last chance to catch Ozzy before he retires. He did sound great and they had a lot more energy at this show than the one I went to in 2002. Great show and I got home in plenty of time to catch some shut eye.

I did want to give a couple shouts out this weekend. First to my buddy John. Congrats to him and Mel on their engagement. Also my friend Greg got engaged the same weekend (last weekend) so congrats to them as well. I guess I have a lot of weddings to attend here soon! Also, congrats Janette. LOL. I knew God would take care of you, I just didn't realize how soon. Best of luck to you and the new family.

Still reading the bible, as always, and it's good reading. Each time I read it, I realize I missed a thing or two the first time around. One of these days I hope to be the expert. It takes me about a year to go through it, so those who are able to read it 2,3 and 4 times a year, gratz to you :)

Other than that, not a whole lot to add to this blog entry. Have a great week. Two more to go for me before I am off from Dec 22nd to the 6th of Jan. Woot, snow ----- here I come!

A couple of weeks ago I was all psyched out to go to a concert when the main attraction got the stomach flu. So....the concert was rescheduled for tonight. I don't have work off tomorrow so well, I guess I'll be feeling it in the morning, haha. Been a while since I've been to a major concert and I'm going with a close friend :)

This week was very interesting at work. We got our new piece of SAN equipment delivered and got some training on it as well. I am going to be engineering a new solution using this very cool new storage array so that's exciting. It was also "vendor week" (so to speak) at work so they had a lot of parties. I was invited to three of them but went to just one of them in old town. It was at the top of one of the hotels and you could see all of San Diego, the Bay and had a great view of Petco Park (too bad there wasn't a ball game going on). The best part of the night was making all the new contacts. It's good to get to know the vendors and have a friendly relationship with them because when you have troubleshooting to do, you know you can count on them.

I also got a lot of projects off my board so that I can start taking on new ones. One of the neat ones is a 64 bit O/S project. All new technologies, new applications, etc. It should really boost our capabilities and teach me a lot. That reminds me, I've been at the job about 10 months now and I can say without a doubt that I have learned a TON! Next year I am supposed to be attending EMC classes so that should really boost my value to the company.

Other than that it's been a fairly quiet week. Church on Saturday of course (we had another guest speaker. He was pretty good but I like our Pastor a lot and look forward to seeing him speak) but no riding. I've already scheduled 2 weeks off over Christmas and New Years and I really do plan on doing some snowboarding and at least one track day. I'm going to see if I can find a track day at a track I haven't been to yet (as long as it's not in Rosamond, hah. I've had my fill of that place for a while). That track in Vegas that Freddy Specer's school is at sounds very interesting. Perhaps I can use some of my savings and just take his class as I have been thinking about doing that for years.

I guess that's about it for the weekend. That's not everything -- but that's all I am telling ya for now :) (muahaha). Hope you have a great week. I've got to hit the shower, change and get ready to head to the show. You'll find me wearing my "Rage Against the Machine" tee shirt :)