Okay…maybe just one: I’ll continue to avoid eating spam or any spam bi-products this year.

I could reflect on 2011 but I don’t want to. It had its moments. I have prior blog entries should I feel nostalgic.

I wrapped this year up by swapping out an outlet for our dryer, moving out the POS laundry machines that former tenants left us, and installed our nice machines. The POS machines began requiring us to make weekly treks to the laundromat. A major pain in the ass when you consider the amount of laundry a family of four produce. My hatred for that finally exceeded the hell involved in swapping out these machines and installing an appropriate outlet for the dryer (electricity in it’s raw form scares the hell out of me).

I really need to reduce the amount of Mountain Dew I consume in a week. Not a “resolution”, merely an observation.

Reading for pleasure has not been possible this past year. If it didn’t involve Trig, Calculus, proofs, predicate logic or set theory, I wasn’t reading it. In between semesters I managed to squeeze in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” (a childhood favorite). When this semester ended I re-KINDLEd my love for pleasure reading. Yeah, notice the pun? …my awesome wife set me up with a Kindle for Christmas. Both kids got kindles too. We’re Kin-dle-ings…ok, I really to stop that.

Ramen noodles are not food and should not be purchased. Not a “resolution”, merely an observation.

Why I like the Kindle – I like the “electronic ink.” It really is pleasant to read and the background has kind of a faux paper texture. It’s not backlit like a tablet or laptop so it’s easy on the eyes. You can adjust the font and line spacing to suit your needs. It’s simple small, lightweight and portable. Long battery life and it has an umbilical cord direct to Amazon. Yeah…we’re amazonoholics. You should see the number of empty boxes from Christmas shopping.

I really need less ass time, more running/biking. Not a “resolution”, merely an observation.

I still love the tactile qualities of a a printed book….and some books will still be “bookworthy”. But for reading disposable paperbacks that you just read once, and toss in a box (or shelf) that take up space (Or you take a pile of them to your local second hand bookstore and trade them in for more disposable books.) the Kindle is a perfect solution. Not to mention you also get access to things you wouldn’t normally read. Speaking of which, if you’re a book-o-phile, check out Goodreads.com. Rate 20+ books that you’ve read and you’ll get a great list of great recommendations based on your reading. There is also a social aspect where you can connect with other bookworms. I’ve got a few “to read” books based on the recommendations of others.

Sailor Jerry is my new favorite awesome rum. Drink more rum? Not a “resolution”, merely an observation.

Because of GoodreadsI finally decided to check out what all the hype is regarding George R.R. Martin and his Song of Fire & Ice series. I see the first book “A Game of Thrones” everywhere. I’m always skeptical about that which is popular. I mentioned this to my Mom while we were out Christmas shopping and behold…I got a copy for Christmas. I had another book lined up to read first, but the Prologue of “A Game of Thrones” sucked me in and I couldn’t get to chapter 1 soon enough.

Sons of Anarchy is my latest TV addiction. Ok, I resolve to watch more of that.

I’m not a big fantasy reader…mostly because there is alot of derivative crap out there and alot of emphasis placed on the mythology and lore vs. a good storyline. I loved Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books (read those in high school and post high school) read Lord of The Rings when I was a senior in high school. There might be a Conan book in there somewhere but I won’t publicly admit that. My friend Jordan was big into Peirs Anthony, I tried one of his books, couldn’t get into it.

A Game of Thrones is an epic, gritty, violent, political and even…yep…sexual…. story that takes place in a classic Castles, Knights, Wizards and Dragons type of setting. I’ll write a proper review of it when I’m done. It’s like “The Sopranos” only with chain mail and swords. I’m into this probably as much as I was into JJ Abrams’ Battlestar Galactica series. Great characters you love and hate. Well written. While reading the prologue I was totally transported to a dark snowy forest and could see my breath and hear the snow crunch while these shadowy creatures with swords that screamed when they struck metal tore up these two men. When you lose the mechanics of words to the mental movie playing in your head, it’s a good freakin’ book. You also get small morsels at a time of the background of each character. It’s like peeling back layers of an onion as you go. I prefer this style over writers like Anne Rice that take 6 chapters to write about one character.

I’ll rant more about this later, I’m off to enjoy the New Year…see you in 2012.

The first big step was my wife’s new job that came with a healthy pay increase that takes some financial pressure off us, and puts us back on track to buy a house so we can stop living like nomads.  She’s making more than my top pay when I was a Manager with the state, which is awesome considering her education.  More importantly she loves what she’s doing and her colleagues….I’m a little envious about going to a job that you love each day.  This lead me to break out a mind-map and re-think what I want to be when I grow up.  Kind of funny considering I’m working on my second career.  Things that trip my trigger – Creativity, technology, programming & logic, mathematical patterns, a field that is constantly changing/evolving, freedom (i.e. being my own boss.)  I’ve always had a deep love for web development and started creating web pages back in the late 90′s.  Web technologies have since evolved into full blown server side applications where a GUI sits on a database with an amazing level of interaction.  BSU nor any of my local community colleges have a CIS or web dev program.  (CWI has something close but not enough to merit going.)

The next step was getting accepted into a new program at Devry University — CIS in Web Development.  All of my General Ed classes transferred & are covered.  The work load is such that I can work while taking their online courses.

Which leads to the third step — me bringing in an income.  Ultimately I would like my own web design/development business to be my job…until we get there I’ll be doing something more traditional in the IT field.  I have a good friend who is a talented graphic designer and we’re starting up our own freelance business which you can see here.

There’s my update for now.  Happy Holidays!

A Sequel

I’ve tried to train my kids…mainly my oldest, that after they use one of my various writing instruments, it is imperative for the sake of their dad’s mental health, that they return it back to the desk they got it from.  I have to say he’s pretty good at it.

I hate cheap pens.  They never work when you need them too, they have a tendency to explode at the worst possible times and they are not comfortable to write with.  I  find my handwriting to be atrocious when I’m writing with a cheap stick pen.  (Maybe there is something subconscious going on there.)  On the other hand, I’m on a tight budget so buying expensive “Executive” style pens is out of the question right now.  I have found my favorite writing utensils and they’re easy on the pocketbook.

My favorite ball point pen – the Pentel Client.

I love these for general purpose writing and note taking.  They’re weighted  with a nice grip, refillable. heavily constructed, extremely comfortable to write with and they glide across paper.  I have yet to have one break, blow up, or fail me.

Seriously, add this to your favorite geek’s pocket protector.  My university bookstore sells them for about $8.00 each.

My new favorite pen is an ultra fine gel pen that works great in my moleskine notebooks by “TÜL”.   They don’t bleed through like the pilot G2′s (the “preferred” Moleskine nerd pen.)

They’re kind of sleek, simple and sexy.  If Apple were to make an iPen, this would be it.

There’s my rant on pens….I have much more analog gadgets to geek-out about on this thread.  Index cards will be the next one.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/algorithms-take-control-of-wall-street.ars

If anyone out there in cyberland has an opinion on the subject, I’d love to hear it.

Reblogged from a diary of a mom:

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The world lost a great visionary last night.

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And the autism community lost a hero.
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I heard one of the talking heads on television last night say, “Well, in some ways he wasn’t the best CEO. He wasn’t really so good at interacting with people.” I couldn’t help it; I laughed. Firstly, of course, because I live in Autismland – a place in which not being ‘so good at interacting with people’ is kinda the norm.
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But secondly, I laughed because the idea is pretty preposterous, isn’t it? That Steve Jobs …