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Are you kidding me? This is not why I live in AZ. (look at the “feels like” temperature listed)

I realize that there are other places colder than this, but I’m in ARIZONA. Someone apparently bumped the global thermostat a little too hard. Can we fix this already, I’d much prefer mid 80′s like its supposed to be in Feb.

So I haven’t updated in forever. No excuses really, I just haven’t felt like it.

Things are going well overall. The business has shifted recently from primarily graphics, to primarily computer work. Which is fine. It all pays decent and work is work. I’ve recently completed a logo package and a website for a professional society in Scottsdale, and I’m hoping to have screen shots and samples up on the business website soon. I’ve also done some other small custom projects here and there, but several of them are still not public, so I cant really add them to the site. I did recently redesign the business website template. I just need to get in there and do some more updating. One of these days.

I ended up working at a couple of Haunted Houses on and off throughout October, which was a good time. We rigged up lights inside the ambulance and installed a body bag on the stretcher and then freaked people out pretty effectively all month long. The main Haunted House we worked with was a charity deal, and the bulk of the proceeds went to various charities around town, so it was for a good cause, and they were a great group of people to work with. We plan on being back next year to help out as well. If you are interested in Haunted stuff in October and you are local, you should really check them out in 2011. The Slaughterhouse.

November was its usual blur. Took the Ambulance to Good-guys in Scottsdale and had a good time. (Although there were some quirks this year that I think they really need to work out.) The People and the cars were great though. We really had a good time up there. Spent some time hanging out with Amber and Mike in the GM performance Division display in the vendor area.  And they were kind enough to let us park the ambulance at their display on Sunday which was pretty cool.

From there we dropped right into Thanksgiving and the entire herd of family. Smoked the birds again this year, and tried a couple of new things in the process. We did a dry rub on one Turkey, which came out fantastic. And there were some new sides tried this year as well. Honey Glazed Carrots = Excellent! In the middle of Good-guys and Thanksgiving, we both decided to do NaNoWriMo again. And while it was an effort do to some outside things, we both managed to make the 50K target to win this year.

And that brings us to December 1. I’m thinking about decorating the ambulance for the holidays this year, but I’m not sure what I’d do with it if I did. I’m not very active with the club that does the holiday parade of lights anymore. While I’m sure they’d be happy to have me there, I Haven’t been active for a while, and it just doesn’t seem right to just show up for the fun stuff and then bail again. That’s one of the reasons I’ve stepped back from the club. I ended up being one of the only people in the club that did anything. Everyone else showed up for the fun stuff and then bailed right after. Beyond that, its the same stuff on a different day. Lots of things going this month. And then a new year.

I’d say that I’ll try to update more, but I probably wont. So I’ll see you when I see you, and if you need me, hit the contact button or just call or E-mail.

Have a good holiday!

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. – Arts and animation videos.

Just a brief rant this morning.

I was up and about early this morning and I decided to run down and check the Business Mailbox early before it got busy since I haven’t checked it in a few days.  So I head out, hop in the car and as I’m backing out of the garage my gas light comes on.  Its early still, so I figure I’ll hit the gas station and fill up the car before it gets too busy there as well.  So I head off on my merry way.  As I’m standing at the pump at the gas station filling the car, I notice a truck come roaring in off the main street.  It pulls to a stop at the pump next to me and the passenger door flies open.  I figured it was someone that needed coffee or the restroom or something.

Imagine my surprise when the woman comes straight for me with paperwork in her hands.  She approaches the car and starts to give me the Pitch about a free message from God and offers me a copy of the “Watchtower”

Really?

In the middle of the gas station?

And you pulled off the street specifically to annoy me with this?

I told her I wasn’t interested, and she immediately turned and accosted the woman on the other side of the pumps who was filling her car. After getting a “Not interested” from the other woman, the fanatic returned to her truck, climbed back into the passenger side and the vehicle pulled out of the gas station and merged back into traffic.

THIS is why some religions have negative reputations.  Aside from the arrogance of thinking that everyone wants to share your religious beliefs, pulling off the street and into a gas station for the EXPRESS purpose of trying to give me your paperwork is absolutely out of bounds.  Are you people nuts?  I have a No Solicitors sign up at the house that keeps most folks out, so now you figure its OK to accost me when I’m out?  Do you people have no shame?  And before people tell me that this was an isolated incident, let me remind you that this ONE person is the one I came in contact with.  And this person just represented your entire religion to me this morning.  Great Job there!

And just to make sure I’m equal opportunity today, I decided to stop at the grocery store to pick up a few small things I forgot last night while we were there.  As I’m walking to the door I notice a brand new Mercedes that is parked ACROSS 2 handicapped spots right in front of the store.  Like 90 degrees across them.  Blocking the closest 2 out of the 3 handicapped spots.  No handicapped plate, no handicapped tag, nothing.  And as I get up parallel with the car, this woman comes walking out the front doors of the store with a Starbucks cup in her hand.  She disarms the car, gets in and pulls out.

Remind me why I cannot have an RPG or some C4 charges?  If anyone deserved to come back from her coffee run to a smoking crater it was this woman.  There were probably 6 cars in the ENTIRE parking lot.  Yet it was apparently too hard, and too complicated to actually park her car properly before she went in to get her coffee.  And I totally understand.  She drives a brand new Mercedes with personalized plates, and she is obviously a busy person and MUCH more IMPORTANT than the rest of us.

And she is still an inconsiderate person.  Some days I really wonder about the state of humanity.  Apparently we are just doomed.

Its the start of another new year, and its the time of the year where everyone makes all manner of resolutions that they will have forgotten by the first of February. I’ve never been fond of resolutions as they always end too lofty and vague to actually keep going. Not to mention that my needs and goals tend to shift throughout the year anyways. Rather than making resolutions for things I’d “like” to do this year, I decided to sit down and restructure some things and actually make some changes right now. I look at this as an evolutionary process. This will probably change as the year progresses, so I’ll make every effort to update this as things change. For now, this is how I’ve structured things.

1. My desk for the last few years has been a wasteland of junk, randomness, and various stuff. About 3 months ago, I realized that it was just not working for me and I cleaned. I mean, really cleaned. Blew it up and started over would not be too strong a description actually. I moved shelving around. Organized paperwork, cleaned out filing cabinets, and generally finally got around to throwing out items that I’ve been saving “just in case”. I realized that I do not need computer parts from 10 years ago. Technology has changed and those parts are truly obsolete so they were dumpstered. I also realized that piling paperwork up on the desktop was not actually accomplishing anything. Things just got stacked up higher and higher and I never actually looked at them once they went into the pile. So I changed all that. Paperwork got filed. filing cabinets were cleaned out and organized. And while I still have one cabinet to go through and tidy up, I ended up with huge amounts of space. I have a desktop I can use for actual work now. And anything that is not currently “in process” is put away. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. But I have discovered that I *feel* like I’m more efficient. (Which may just be a placebo effect to justify the effort cleaning.) Either way, It seemed to help.

2. I figured if a little neatness helped the physical desktop, maybe it would help the computer desktop as well. I’m not sure I’m ready or willing to dive into re-skinning the desktop or any of the really exotic things that can be done with programs like Rainmeter or Samurize. I figured it would be best to start small and work figure out what I needed. So I decluttered my desktop. I moved all of the common applications that I use to a RocketDock application launcher bar. Again, its only anecdotal at this point, but it *seems* to make a difference. I seem to be less tempted to wander off and tinker with other things in the middle of a project. And I’ve discovered that it seems to be faster to actually get to where I want to go. I’m either using the application bar, or the built in search in Win7. And more surprising, I’ve discovered that I don’t really need all of the random text files laying around on the desktop that I used to have. I’m currently playing with OneNote and trying to keep all of my work related notes there so I don’t have to go looking when I need some information.

I’m sure that I’ll end up making some adjustments moving forward, but so far, restructuring has helped me feel like I’m accomplishing more. And even if my productive has not actually change, at the very least I have more room to work, which is always a plus.