It's been a long time....

I haven't posted in a long, long time and thought today would be good to start again. Since I wrote last I have done a lot including:

• A great internship at Alameda East where I learned a ton and met some great people.
• Graduated from Bel-rea Institute of Animal Technology on June 7, 2010
• Returned to Michigan for a month long excursion....restful and relaxing!
• Passed my VTNE on July 24, 2010! Yay, I'm a Certified Veterinary Technician

Now I am on the search to find my first Vet tech job. I am excited as I have an interview tomorrow! I will update after I get back home.

Tiny Enid is no longer that tiny. I took her to the Vet last week and she is 47lbs and in great health. She may become my running dog. I took her out on a little run yesterday and she did great and appeared to enjoy it....we'll see!

Nikki is doing well. She has had a few seizures in the past couple of weeks, luckily they have only been small ones. I will need to take her into the Vet soon to see about her incontinence and back pain.

Ocyrus and Athena are doing great! They are coming up on 10yrs in September.

Matt has been here the past couple of weeks and I have really enjoyed him being around. I know that in the near future he will be on the road again, but I'm cherishing the time I have with him while I can!

More to come...and a lot sooner than the last time!

It's 3:30 in the morning... do you know where your geek is?

Sorry for the delay in posting. Yesterday, I worked from 7:00AM to 5:30AM, with very few breaks for eating, etc. I slept from 5:45AM until 10:00AM and have worked straight until now... 3:30AM. I don't write this to complain. In fact, I'm having a great time. It's been a little stressful with some of our preparations going awry, but everything seems to be falling in place. The light at the end of the tunnel is due, in no small part, to the amazingly diverse and flat-out brilliant peeps I work with. It's been a great ride so far, and we haven't even opened the doors to public yet.

Currently, I'm sitting in the server-room of the Adler Planetarium waiting for a cohort to return with a license dongle to activate a server we have here. I will write more about this nifty piece of hardware, but only after its unveiled. Imagine the announcement of the G3 iPhone, except for planetarium nerds. It's going to be that cool.

I have been taking lots of pics (some actually are pretty good) with my new lens, and will posting them once I've had more than 18 minutes to sleep. All is well in the Chi-Town. Peace n' love!

It's been a long day coming...

Hey all,
This is the first post in a while. I'm hell-bent on posting more than last year (128), and I haven't been doing very well with that resolution.

The main cause for the delay has been sheer busyness. But, everyone's busy, so that's really not much of an excuse. My grandma died on 21st of February, and I could use my grieving as an excuse for not posting, but that's not it either. Sometimes I lose interest, and sometimes I don't. I think that's about it.

I am planning a long write-up on my grandma, my thoughts on her death, and how she's impacted my life, but this isn't that post. I need to think more on it before I post something.

I was out at NASA Ames Research Center last week and this week I'm off to Houston (to buy me some pants -Beck) then from Houston to NYC until next week Tues. Then home for four days, and I'm off to the UK for two weeks. It goes without saying that I'll be as busy as always, but it shouldn't stop me from posting and updating. I will make a conscious effort to post more over the next few weeks as I bounce from one side of the country to the other, from one side of the world to the other. I have recently updated the cool-ass Google Map on the right-hand navigation bar with my visit to NASA, and will update it as I pop around the next few weeks.

Updates:

1. As I mentioned before, my Grandma (on my father's side) died on the 21st. She wanted the funeral and visitation to be done with as soon as possible, so she died on a Thursday, the visitation was on Friday, and the funeral was on Saturday. Mandy and I literally jumped on a plane and did a crazy circuit with family and friends for the few days we were there. I will write more on this later.

2. Nikki, our dog, graduated from her Pet Smart Beginner's Training course. The cool thing is, the class has a practice exam before the real one, that way the dogs have two chances to complete the list of commands they have to obey. Nikki passed on the practice exam, a week earlier than the time normally allotted. Only her and one other dog out of a class of ten completed early. The teacher of the class told us we should run her through the rest of the classes because she's smart enough to complete them, so we're signed up for the intermediate. Hopefully she'll pass, and be as well-behaved as Mandy's sister's dog Stormy. Either way, Nikki did really well and has been adapting to her new behavior modification like a champ. She's so smart... (*Note: If this is how I talk up my dog's training, just wait until we have kids... there will be no end to it)

3. The house here in Denver is really shaping up. Thanks to all the help from Mandy's parents, we have a fully functioning set of curtains in our newly painted kitchen and an awesome fold-out spice rack on its way in the mail. Mandy painted the upstairs, and we've put in a faux-bamboo roll-up to cover the closet, and bought new office furniture. As we find places for the rest of the crap, the upstairs is finally turning into a work / living space. Our next steps are to finish the furnishing of the living room, paint that area, then start working on the master and guest bedrooms. By the time people come out to visit this Spring / Summer, we'll be mostly done decorating and organizing.

4. Work has been crazy for both of us. Mandy is hard at work pointin' out bugs in her HR software. Point of fact, the other day, she found a bug so devastating it might delay the whole product launch. Go Mandy! My work has involved lots of traveling, big displays systems, and crazy dancer / astrophysicists (it's true). I have begun my HSPD 12 security clearance process, which should take about six months. It's a security clearance I need to access NASA computer system as well as gain access to any NRL (National Research Laboratory) sites. Some of you will be getting calls from the goverment asking about my ability to handle sensitive government docs. Whatever you do, don't tell them about that time I ruled the small island-country of "Kalembesh" in the Adriatic sea.

That's about it from here. Many of these items need more info and updating, I realize. I will be doing my best to fill in the gaps of these past few weeks, and will work harder on putting up more content.

Thanks for tuning in!

Lots of updates....

There are a lot of changes happening now, which is one of the main reasons that I haven't written in awhile. Mostly it has been because our internet was kinda flaky while we moved and I wasn't able to get online for almost a week!

I got A's in the three classes that I took this fall......but I also found out that I am not able to get into my major this semester. This means that I have to wait until next fall to start my classes. Sigh! Anyways, I decided that I didn't want to sit around on my butt until then, so I applied at a part-time QA job. They said they would like to offer me a job, pending my background check approval. I will start after the first of the year and will be working 30 hours a week, M-F. Right now I am on the schedule at the dog shop for 2 nights....we'll see how it all works out.

We are looking forward to having myparents come and visit this weekend, so if you have anything you would like to send with them like notes or goodies (like an Xbox360 - Matt) pass it off to them before they leave on Friday.


We are getting unpacked and organized at our new place. I have a couple of pics and we will continue to post more as we get through all of this moving stuff :)

Our new rug - we got it off from Craigslist!

Updates, Dogs, Projectors, and Scared People

Hey everybody. It's been a while since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd throw something out there to let everyone know we're still alive and kicking.

We've recently signed a 18 month lease on an awesome 2 bedroom + loft house in the Washington Park area of Denver. The place is really spacious, has a nice backyard, and allows dogs. We're really looking forward to this being the last time we move in a while. Since it's only about a mile and a half from where we're living now, we can ferry much of our belongings to the new place with our car. We'll hold off on any kind of moving van until the very end, and just make trips back and forth clearing out this place.

One of the nice things about the new place is that it will have a prepared spare bedroom. Perfect for any road-weary traveling wanting to rest their heads. Many have expressed an interest in coming to visit next year, and this will make the stay quite a bit nicer, we think. It will also give us a little more space for some activities (brewing beer, for instance) that we simply are unable to do here because of space limitations.

Work is going extremely well for me. I've been learning a ton from my new coworkers and have really enjoyed getting back into the tech end of things, with a really amazing creative aspect. Odds are I'll be flying out to Houston next week to consult with some engineers on a geology/tectonic visualization system for Exxon. It's a really strange world.

Mandy is doing well in her classes. They are set to wrap in the next few weeks, freeing her a mind a bit when we come back to GR to visit friends and family for Thanksgiving. Her work is also going well; it fills her with some of the funniest/strangest dog stories I've ever heard.

Speaking of traveling, for those of you who don't know, we'll both be back in GR from Nov 19th to the 26th, though I may be leaving a day early due to work. Our schedule is filling up very quickly, so if you're hoping to hook up and hang out while we're in town, drop us a line so we can find the time. The next time we're likely to be in town will be in March, or possibly later.

That's about it from this end. To wrap up this long-overdue post, here's a really good compilation of people scaring the hell out of each other. Enjoy!



(What is it about people being scared that's so funny?)

An update for updates

We've been very busy recently, so the posting has dropped off a bit. I'm still working on Part II of the faux travelogue detailing our adventure out here. I know some of you have written asking where it is. It's on its way.

Mandy and I have been going to a few interviews here and there. Some are promising, but most are looking to just be filler jobs. There is an abundance of work we no longer want to do, but not a lot of what we do.

Mandy has started her 25 hours of observation at a gym about 3/4ths of a mile from out place. That seems to be going well, and by the end of the week, she'll be close to half done. She's still working on getting classes setup, transcripts transfered, and getting in touch with her profs. For the most part, her schooling is shaping up nicely.

This past weekend Mandy and I worked on a 48-Hour Film Project. Our video hasn't been uploaded yet, but when it does you should be able to find it under "Spoken For." I'll post a link when I know it's up.

The 48-Hour Film Project is an international competition similar to the 24-hour festivals we've worked on in the past, except that each city competes against each other and within a city there are no first, second, or third place positions.. This was done partially for the fun of competition, but also to do some networking with the film crowd in Denver. The group we worked with was backed by Uptown 6, a production company here in town. As a result of meeting the owners and getting to know some of the film people, I have gotten some freelance work and may be traveling for three weeks in October to work on an unnamed pilot for PBS. That would rock.

The screening of the films was last night and I have to admit, I've never been more proud of Grand Rapidian filmmakers. The vast majority of the films were lame compared to the work I saw at the 24-hour festivals in GR. I mean, these people had twice the time we did to create their pieces and the majority were incorrectly exposed, not white-balanced, and had terrible audio. And they had 48 hours! All in all it was a fun experience and accomplished the two main goals I had going into it.

On other fronts, we've met some cool people we've gone hiking with. We're trying to start up another chapter of the Cincinnati Cooking Club, and are meeting with a couple people we met at an art gallery opening to cook this Saturday and see if they're into the idea of doing it monthly. I'll post a link to a Flickr stream of some of the pictures we took while hiking in the next post.

We also just received our 10 mega pixel Canon XTi and two lenses. I will post some of the pictures to our Flickr stream and give write a quick review of the lenses and camera when I've had more time to play around with it. In the 24 hours we've had to play with it, I've been amazed. Simply amazed.

I will elaborate more on what I wrote here in the next few posts, I just thought I'd put up a quick update to let everyone know we're still alive and kickin' it in the West.

To come:
1. Pictures from our hike in Rockie Mountain National Park
2. Review of the Canon XTi, Tameron 70-300mm, and the Canon 50mm
3. A video post of a guy having a grand mal seizure right outside our window
4. A video post of us showing you all the apartment, similar to the one we posted back in July.

I'm also posting the following blip on behalf of Chad, who just had his film 'Little Thumb' get accepted in the Battle Creek Film Festival.

"Greetings friends and family,

My film just got accepted to the Battle Creek Film Festival and there is a vote going on to determine the People's Choice Award based on the trailers. I agree, pretty stupid. But anyway, I thought I would put a call out to you all to at least vote for my trailer. Here is the link below. Its on the bottom on the left hand side.

http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage"

Another Quick Update: Denver

We've arrived in Denver after two days of driving. The cats were good, perfect in fact. The second day (yesterday) we didn't drug them and they were quiet the entire 7 1/2 hour drive. Bonus!

Our connection should be coming alive today. If it does, I will put up another post to let everyone know we're back with constant access. If not, I'll post an entry detailing why we weren't online.

Keep it real!

Moving Report

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K

Mandy and I are heading into flux territory again. The wheels of life begin to grind once more and a great evil looms in the East.

Our lease is up at the end of June. So, between then and now we have to decide the following:

1) Where we're going to move
2) What school Mandy can get into to finish her degree
3) Where we can work
4) How/if I can find work that relates in any way to video

We have about six weeks to figure all of this out. While we are on our way to getting a number of these things nailed down, there's still work to be done. My posts will remain sporadic for the next month and a half as we work our way through the big Decisions. I will try to keep the blog updated with details about our job situations, where we're moving, and what we're planning.

So, to start, I am 15 calendar days away from not working at my current job. I tendered my two week resignation this past Wednesday. My last day will be June 1st. My plan is to use the month of June to finish Sue and Casey's travel dvd, help pack up all of our belongings, travel to the new city and find an apartment, and move. Our current thinking is Mandy will be done with her job one week after I am done with mine, so we both can travel to the city to check out apartments and neighborhoods.

This strategy carries some obvious risk, but such is the case with anything worth doing. A career change on both our parts, medical and video, will not come about without sacrifice and work. I think we're both in a much better position financially and emotionally for the change due in large part to our hiatus to CinCity. We both feel the project was a success and are eager to move on to the next thing.

An example of something I've recently had to reassess is my rubber band ball strategy. My work environment is beset with rubber bands of all shapes, sizes, and colors. They gather in dimly lit corners in small, dusty piles. They find their way into cups of coffee, between printouts, and even into shoes. To help with this problem, many of my co-workers have begun to capture the stretchy strings and wind them into rubber band balls of various sizes. Some are monstrous; the har labor of many years. Others are dainty and colorful, the fruits of a passing interest. My goal was to create three fist-sized rubber balls I could juggle. However, my resignation has forced my face up to the fact that this an impossibility. I had only created one complete ball and had just started a second. I realized that the average volume of rubber bands that come my way is not enough to complete the project before I would be leaving. So, this morning, while watching scripts run on my computer, I unwound the smaller ball and merged the bands with the larger ball; my thinking being, one large ball is easier to keep track of than two smaller ones.

(This is two of me pushing both of the balls together)

slacking

We have a number of people write, call, and IM that we haven't been as prolific with updates these past couple weeks. While true, it isn't totally without reason. I have been crazy-busy these past two weeks. A massive computer crash (no, not the Mac), a deadline pushed up two weeks by my client in GR, and fun visit by Chad and Megan last weekend are all reasons why I haven't been posting, not excuses. I should be posting regardless. I'm trying to keep people amused and informed about our going-ons down here in the great sweeping Ohioan expanse, and I can't do that unless I post.

It's strange doing this blogging thing. Both Mandy and I will go through periods of creativity and interest in it, then just as suddenly loose interest. What I need to do is during my next bout of creativity, write a few posts and just keep them in draft, so when I'm not feeling up to writing, I can just post one of those.

To recap, here's few things we've been up to since the last post:
1. Chad and Megan came down to visit last weekend. It was great to hang out with some them.
2. We had a really successful cooking club last weekend. The theme was fondue, and there was much dipping. A special thanks to Chad's parents for the use of their awesome ceramic fondue pot.
3. We saw Grindhouse last night. Words cannot describe the experience. It's so unlike any other movie-going experience I've had, that I'm reluctant to even call it a movie. It's something has to be seen to be believed, both in a good and bad way.
4. Mandy and I have been thinking of adding another member to the family. Keep looking back for more updates on this...


(One of the many amazing scenes from such a wonderful movie. Too bad YouTube resolution is so crappy.)