So my friend Bluecube from teh Internetz recently came out with a new Album. If you like music, you should most definetly check it out! I'm listening to "Button Up" right now, and it makes me feel great!
posted at 10/31/2007
Alright, Angie tagged me...
"Instructions: You got 'tagged'! ... Once you've been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random things, facts or habits about yourself. At the end, you choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names and why you chose them to be tagged. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you are tagged' on their profile/blog/whatever and to read your latest blog. Have fun!..."1. I have drove the same car for the past four years, which is a major feat for anyone I am related to.2. I really want to start dressing like I mean business Monday through Friday.3. As far as my job: I know a lot, but I google more.4. I'm lately realising live is changing and that my siblings are getting older (and taller). 5. I can be very analytical. Sometimes for better or for worse.6. I am totally love making food. Last week, Jacinda and I made biscuits, rye bread, dinner rolls and cookies. I also like to make actual meals. They don't take very long to make and they are SO much better for you than frozen crap.
7. I really, really, really hate plumbing.8. Despite my computer geekyness, I am way fascinated with simple living.9. Speaking of simple, I think over-consumption is the root of all America's problems. That's right people, not obesity, nor smoking... It is red-lining on the moderation chart.10. I have very oftenly debated wether purchasing a house at the spry age of nineteen was a good idea, or if it was a very spur-of-the-moment, impractical move. Lately, I've been pretty alright with it, however.
Alright kiddos! It's your turn now! I choose:1. Jacinda2. Mom3. Brendan4. Carl5. Josh E.6. Carrie7. Katrina8. Alex9. Sarah10. Mark*Also, don't forget to link people* ;-)
posted at 10/22/2007
woot.com has Brown Zunes for $80 today! YES.
So I officially bought a Brown Zune, the saddest color of them all. I don't have any buyer's remorse yet, and I promised Jacinda that we would get a new faucet for the bath tub. She seemed happy about that. Thanks darling! Hopefully, now that woot.com successfully roped me into buying a Zune, they'll be done with the sales (I'd hate for them to have a cheaper deal in the future).
Here I am everyone, on my third day of working at Famous Davis, sitting at a built-in desk bustin' code like you've never seen before.
Alright, actually I feel like I'm not getting a whole lot done. Mostly because it feels like I've just been setting up stuff or something. New job, I guess. Today I believe will be pretty productive, however. We are going out to the MinnWest Technology Campus for a while to get the keys and badges and what-not so that we can utilise our soon-to-be office. I'm pretty excited! I'll get pics sometime for you to decide. AND! Sounds like we got the job of maintaining their website! w00t!
posted at 10/18/2007
My ankle hurts today and I love it! Last night Master Jon held a sparring class for us over at Lee's TKD Willmar. I got to spar twice, once against a kid named Chris and once against Aaron Thomsen. Aaron was a lot of fun to kick at. I managed to kick him in the face and he got a few good shots at me. I must have caught his elbow with my ankle, which is why it throbs today.
Master Jon also sparred each of us for a minute a piece, which was great. He's scary as heck to watch fight someone, and scary as heck to fight against. You can tell the guy is holding back, but he will still throw in a pretty vicious counter-attack if you kick him wrong. So I, for the most part, just backed off and let him come into me. Which was okay except for that I found a hard time getting a kick in. UGH.
Oh my gosh, you had to be there, it was just all around great funness. Also, Josh Erickson got his face kicked apart.
posted at 10/10/2007
The past couple years, I've had experience with about four different hosting solutions. A small hosting service, 1 and 1, a virtual machine setup and a very short-lived attempt at hosting from home. Though all did serve my site for a small portion of time, they all had certain flaws. Three things usually irked me more than others. One was security. 1and1 especially seemed to really strap everything down to the point where you could hardly run a functioning asp.net website. I can understand some of the reason, but it seemed a bit overboard. Also, 1and1 seemed just a tad out of the times with a few of their options. I'm a .net developer, so I need some freedoms with IIS options. They only allowed five web applications per account, and they didn't quite upgrade to .net 2.0 until about two months after it came out...
The smaller hosting I used was for the most part very good. They were very responsive when something went wrong, their fault or my own. Pretty johnny-on-the-spot about new technology. The only gripe (and a fairly large one) was that their system went down a couple months ago and the most recent backup they had was from nine months prior to the hard drive crash. Ouch. That sucked.
The VM experience was alright. I mean, security wasn't an issue for the most part (Though the ftp was an active session, which intefered with a bit of my setup). I set up a few VMs myself, and they aren't really the fastest things on earth. You could kind of tell things where a little pokey once and a while. Over-all it was an alright experience.
Ok ok ok, this blog is probably the most boring thing I've wrote in a while. Basically, what I'm getting at is that I finally have my own dedicated server to play with! It's great. As a benefit of being in the MinnWest Campus, Famous Davis gets to park their webserver in their datacenter. Big fat line coming into our new box. YES. So, my site should be running a notch faster (which is hopefully noticable).
posted at 10/7/2007
posted at 10/4/2007
More or less, this is me testing my blogging system. I added an Auto-Draft safety protocol similar to what Gmail and Blogger support, in case of a lost connection or failure while writing out your heartfelt e-mail or blog. This is totally AJAX.net material here, provided by the wonderful people over at Microsoft.
Welp, looks like it saved. I'm out!
A few of you may know, a few may not, but I just quit my job at E-markets yesterday. Naturally, in my own life, this is a big deal. Huge, actually. First of all, I have never quit a job in my life which gave me an influx of over-played worst-case scenarios, nervousness, sweaty arm pits and a million alternate endings racing through my mind. This feeling I had, it was heightened by the thought that maybe I was making the wrong decision. I have never quit a job, let alone one I felt secure in and one I really enjoyed.
What would make a man give up something like this? One could make examples of money, security, an accident, perhaps a shorter commute, pursuing a different venture in life, people, etc. These are all justifiable in one way or another, but none pertain to me. Though, financially, I do ask for enough to cover the necessities and a little in the bank for savings (and whatever else after that is appreciated, also), my driving reason of making this decision is a couple of things. Firstly, it is because I know I will be able to expand myself and grow in ways I can't right now; as a person, artist and programmer. Secondly, where I am going, I feel that I am very needed and will be able to expand a cause that I am very interested in. If not for self-worth, it is for the sake of something I believe in.
Without further redo, I am going to work at Famous Davis and will specialize in Web Development. This is very exciting for me, as this has been a dream of mine since I was fifteen. I will be working with my father, Chris "The Duke" Davis and with my wife, Jacinda. This change has been on my heart for the past few months, but timing felt off, or the opportunity didn't feel right. It was also a scary move as I have been very comfortable with E-Markets. I have so badly wanted to write about it or talk about it more openly, but that would not have been a good move. So instead it stayed within the ol' brain.
October 16th is when I start at Famous Davis. It's going to be a ton of fun. Sounds like I have a bunch of projects lined up, waiting for me, which I cannot wait to pounce on. We are soon moving out to the MinnWest Technology Campus. I also have an awesome computer and a 22 inch display to play with. Through all of this, however, I need to remember why I am at this point in my life and what my priorities are. God has pulled me through something tough and I pray that I am not steered too far away from the main point of things. Everything still sort of feels like a blur, but is clearing up faster and faster. I need that clarity in order to know which path needs to be taken and how to please God in the actions I take. He's helped me come this far, I don't feel like giving up now.
A huge thanks to my former employer and coworkers, for the great working environment, opportunities and knowledge gained. Also a huge thanks to my parents and especially my wife for supporting me in this venture.
posted at 10/2/2007