The Friends We Leave Behind

Friday was a bittersweet day. I am leaving ProPay to start new adventures at LANDesk.

If you want to see the soul of ProPay, this is IT! (Information Technology that is... swimmin' pools... movie stars...) Anyway... this is one of the finest conglomerations of talent ever "compiled" and I'm proud to call them my friends.

I'll miss you all... but I won't have to if you'll stop playing WoW and start playing TrackMania!!! (And don't forget to start watching Kim Possible... did I mention it's the BEST SHOW EVER MADE?!)

So, the friends I'm leaving behind...

From left-to-right:

Top Row:

^{Robin Shinkle,} _{Scott Maxfield,} ^{Jim Austin,} Wayne Peck, _{Nathan Younger,} ^{Marv White}

Middle Row:

Rob Lish, Anthony Clayson, Jonathan Godfrey, ^{Lloyd Dison, Rob Sabey,}
Stuart Nelson, Ryan Jackson, ^{Nathan Holman,} Jason Gifford, _{Joe Hargadon,}

Miguel Jimenez

Bottom Row:

Patrick Cahill

You'll also notice (behind Jim) Nate Younger's styrofoam Space Invaders... excellent!

Clint Lord was in a meeting, so I had to capture him later... I still missed Dave Jensen, McKay Salisbury, Cris Zamora and Danielle Sargent, for which I am bummed... y'all will have to send me your own pictures... heh! (I also missed alumni like Tyler Jensen and Dan Jarvis.)

There are others from other departments I'll miss too... a company full of good people to be sure.

Thanks for the good times, guys (and gals!)

Why I Dropped Off the Face of the Earth

I got sick of blogging...

... No, seriously, for those that haven't already heard the story ...

On Saturday, 12 April, I went to the baptism of my nephew Morgan Hansen. It was a wonderful service and our family met together at Iggy's near South Towne Mall for lunch afterward.

The food was alright; nothing to blog about... but we went home and that evening I started getting achy all over my body and nauseous. My first reaction was, "Crap, I got food poisoning from Iggy's!" ... and I took it easy the entire night hoping to ride out the effects with minimal discomfort/damage.

I woke up Sunday with the nausea gone, but the aches remained. I went to Church and decided I was just going to roll with the aches in hopes they'd go away soon.

I reported to work Monday still aching. I started developing a cough; which at first seemed harmless, but with each passing day got worse until I was sounding like a chain smoker.

By Wednesday, I was aching and coughing so bad, I decided mid-afternoon that I'd go to the Instacare after work and find out what on Earth was wrong with me. By the time I made it home, I slumped down on the couch and started feeling cold.

It turns out I'd now developed a fever to compliment the aches and cough. Gwen called her parents (thank you so much!) to come watch the kids while she drove me to the Instacare.

The doctor was very kind and quickly discovered that I had Bronchitis induced by Influenza Type-B.

Now, let me the explain the irony here, cause it's a kicker... I have refused to get flu shots for years, because the first time I got one, I got dang sick from it. I swore I'd never do one again. However, this past year was different. I was so worried about our twins being delivered near RSV season, that I got one in hopes of protecting them some through their first winter.

So... we made it through the winter with no apparent signs of flu... but come April, I was screwed. The other kicker... the shot for that year didn't cover Influenza Type-B; so it didn't matter anyway!!! (Anger ensues...)

It gets worse. The doctor told me that had I come in within 72 hours of feeling symptoms, they could have killed the Influenza with "Tamiflu." Well, I WOULD HAVE gone in, but doctors always tell you to wait like 10 days before coming to see them when you have a cough. Here I had just missed the 72 hour mark, so was forced to ride it out.

So that was Wednesday night. By the next Tuesday, it evolved into full-blown Pneumonia in my right-lung, lower lobe. All I could do was breathe shallow to try to avoid incessant cough attacks that I swear were going to invert my torso structure. Many times I was near meeting my lungs and intestines. I coughed so hard, I pulled muscles I never knew I had.

When I went to my real doctor and was diagnosed with the Pneumonia; by the end of the visit, I had to just sit on the bed with hands on my knees, head bowed barely able to hold myself up. The doctor said, "Are you going to be alright?" and felt quite bad for my condition.

He monitored me very closely and did all he could to make this the least of an uncomfortable ride as possible (which is pretty much IMPOSSIBLE.) He was very good, though and I'm grateful for his help.

So, I continued to work, but via telecommuting for the rest of the week. While at home, I avoided everyone (especially the twins) and pretty much stayed in bed when I wasn't sitting at the computer working. The next week, I was in such bad shape, I couldn't even get out of bed. I would muster up enough strength to shower on some days, but by the time I was finished, my day's energy was spent and it was all I could do to get dressed again and get back to the bed.

Needless to say, I took that entire week off work.

The next week I decided to try the telecommuting thing again, still very weak and coughing up the lungs. We had a deadline to hit, so I felt obligated and didn't want to leave my buddies hanging any longer than I had to. I was an idiot and pushed myself too hard... working til 10:00pm on the Monday at home, then trying to go in to the office the next day for our demo. By 2:00pm my head was swimming, I was short of breath and thought I would soon pass out. I drove home and was forced to work the rest of the week at home.

Even after I finally made it back to work permanently, it took another several weeks to get my voice back (for which I was mocked profusely) and the cough lingered for about as long.

I'm still not conditioned for anything very aerobic and get winded very easily. I have a slight residual cough that aggravates when the allergies are in full swing and on rare occasions my voice starts to go out around bedtime; but for the most part, I'm "back to normal."

I've never been so sick in my entire life; and I hope I never get that sick again. During the climax of what my doctor's intern referred to as a "lung injury" - I coughed so hard it not only sapped all my energy, but felt like it strained every muscle in my torso. Just when I thought I couldn't possibly cough anymore... my body was spastically seize into a frenzy. It hurt so bad, I was near praying for death.

Bless Gwen's heart... she informed me I wouldn't be able to leave the Earth at this time. She was so patient and understanding; and tackled a family of seven on her own the entire time, including our infant twins.

I'm so not worthy of her, nor deserve her; but am sincerely grateful the Lord saw fit to bless me to be with her. I now need to get some free time so I can plan a really killer date for her to get away from everything and escape to fun for some time. Heaven knows she more than deserves it.

Thankfully, none of the rest of my family got nailed with it either. The twins had an ear infection near the end of my bout, but it seems non-related.

So that's the state of my union. I've become so backed up on everything that I'll probably never catch up. My goal for the next post is to get some pics and potentially some video up of the kids.

Talk to you soon; and thanks for not giving up on me completely! :)

That One Hiatus Guy - Not By Choice

Why oh why have I had to neglect you, blog? So much has gone on, and for over two weeks, I've had so much to tell you. Alas, because so much has gone on, I haven't had time to poop much less blog about what's happened.

Here's the really long condensed version (I love oxymorons):
Well over a month ago, I'd scheduled to have work off for a week before Memorial Day to do all the final work in getting my house ready to sell, so we could find a larger abode to house our upcoming adventures. Well, when the time finally hit, this is what happened...

Day 1: I get approached by my excellent friend Clint, who referred me to a company he used to work for, touting an exciting opportunity in Software Development. I was compelled to go check it out... so I did so on Day 2; after busting butt to try to get stuff done on the house, and spend some quality time with the fam.

Day 2: Interviewed with ProPay and had a ball. I interviewed with four people, and luckily knew two of them from previous work experience and common friends. This made the interview much less intimdating (one against four - those odds are intimidating) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Day 3: Worked more on the house... helped Brennan's third-grade teacher with a dance party for their class. The festivities included an intense game of musical chairs, the chicken dance and treats with much sugar content. Fun was had by all.

Day 4: ProPay makes an offer I can't refuse. The offer puts me on my friend Wayne's development team working with new Microsoft .NET technologies which has me giddy. The salary increase will help me afford a house in Utah. The feelings at this point are bittersweet; as I already had a killer job with StayWell Interactive in downtown SLC. I now had the ever-so-opposite-of-anything-remotely-close-to-fun responsibility to turn in my letter of resignation.

I will digress now and discuss how painful this is, since I've never had to leave a job I've liked without being forced to due to lay-offs, etc. Leaving a job you don't like is easy... leaving one you do like is torture. I have some really great friends at StayWell and enjoyed my two years with them very much; and learned a lot. They will be missed. Thank heavens for instant messenger.

Back to the story...

Day 5: We find our next home. A too good to be true house in Riverton that's way bigger than we were planning on buying... whose story has to be told in another post, because it's a story of its own. It will suffice to say that we had to jump on trying to land this place or someone else was going to scoop it up. However, at this moment in time, the planets weren't aligned but we tried for it anyway.

Memorial Day (the Monday after the week off): We list our house and put our offer in on the home we felt should be our next stomping grounds. We were basically asked to come back when we had a more serious offer and didn't have a house to sale still.

Tuesday - 29 May: I drive to work with heavy heart and a letter of resignation... head still spinning from all the mayhem that took place the week before. Mustering up all the courage I had, I slowly walked the Green Mile into my boss' (friend's) office and said, "I have some bad news." He said, "I don't think I like the paper that's in your hand." We discussed things and as I returned to my other friends and had to drop the bomb there too.

Note to self: avoid doing that where possible... it's a very difficult thing to do. (Did I mention, thank heaven for instant messenger?)

Back to house stuff... and I need to digress and mention that I'll probably be writing a supplemental post regarding the spiritual aspects of this whole crazy whirlwind that has been our lives over the past month or so... that part of it has been really neat. To illustrate a little in this post, we listed our house at what seemed to be against the odds.

Our agent (and excellent friend) Trent looked up comps in our area, and while one like ours had sold in 3 days, it had been gutted and completely remodeled. Ours has had some remodeling done, but nothing like this other house. The other comps around us were still on the market and had been for 27-45 days; still not sold.

Gwen and I had both always had the feeling that our house would go quick when it was time to sell, so we listed it anyway with that in mind and still went for the house in Riverton. Well, our first sets of people came through the house on Tuesday.

Wednesday: More work on the house, more people coming to see it.

Thursday: More people checking out the house, one set being a couple that had checked it out on the first day and were making a second visit.

Friday: An offer is made on our home by said 2nd walkthrough family.

Saturday: We go under contract on our home and make a second offer on the home in Riverton we wanted.

Monday (4 June): Phone negotiations start between agents on the Riverton home and by the end of the week finally get it under contract.

Friday (8 June): StayWell Interactive graciously takes me to PF Changs for my final lunch with them... That day really sucked... it's always hard to part knowing you won't hang out with those same friends everyday anymore. I wish them the greatest of success and more good times in my absence. I know this wil be dififcult since they won't have the dry humor pun guy there making them groan with 1/2 courtesy-laughs, 1/2 gagging reflex from reaction to the jokes. They also will lack the entertainment of me sitting at my computer trying to play a video one of the other guys sent via hyperlink in an instant message and freaking out about my sound not working; only to find it was because I was instant messaging in a Remote Desktop session on my secondary monitor -- both machine's Windows Taskbars in plain sight on the monitors... good times. They will be missed.

Monday (11 June): I start my job at ProPay. The drive tanks, except for the fact that I'm driving in Orem and that means I get to see lots of UTOPIA trucks and vans around laying fiber optic lines. I've driven past apartment complexes with signs touting their being connected to UTOPIA and my heart skips a beat... then gets extremely jealous and covetous. One day... one day in my Riverton (Phase II UTOPIA City) home... I so can't wait... but I digress (imagine that.)

I've only been at ProPay 4 days so far, but what a cool crew they have over there. I've enjoyed my associations with everyone I've met so far - a very family-friendly company and the work is going to be very enjoyable.

Now we move on to the house inspections, fixing stuff up to prep for the move and all that other fun stuff.

In the meantime, I've started planning (with some neighbors) a block party for my current neighborhood. We put one on last year and it was a ball. We want to do "one more for the road" as a farewell party to have one last huzzah with all our friends before we start a new adventures in Riverton; as well as help integrate the new family into the neighborhood.

Dreyers does this really cool thing every year called "Neighborhood Salute"; where they bring free ice-cream to several block parties. We were fortunate to be selected this year as one of the lucky block parties to have Dreyers' tasty goodness to share with the friends/neighbors. It should be a riot, and we're excited (and grateful!)

In the midst of all this mayhem... I've also been running around like a head-with-its-chicken-cut-off (yes, you heard me right...) trying to finish some side work and keep the Jordan Alumni Association website up-to-date with information on the Centennial Celebration happening in less than three weeks. My latest project on it was to add a Collector Pins database to the site. Shamless plug: some of those pins are the bizzomb. I'll be trying to scrounge up money so I can see about trying to put together a set... :)

Amongst all this, we've discovered this sickening cancerous looking mass growing on my tongue.
WARNING: Clicking on the link isn't for the weak-stomachs out there... for the rest of you, I know how much you want to see my tongue, so click away. :)

I'm getting that looked at by an ENT on Monday and will, I'm sure, be getting it cut off shortly thereafter. That's a pleasant thought... knives in my mouth gouging the tool that allows me to communicate with others... and taste Dryers ice-cream.

I'm sure it's stress-invoked... but dang, kinda freaky. I'll keep y'all posted on that one as I know you're fascinated *barf* -- it merits its own post, so it will most likely get one.

Like I've told everyone else, before I've shared it with you, blog... but I'm obviously a psycho masochist who always seems to find some exposed portion of the plate to slap something else on. My family is going for the Guiness record of most life altering events in a year (or rather six-month period. Crock, we might already have it just from the last month. I take that back, we have to wait til the twins are born so we can count that... three months. Most life altering events in three months.)

I just hope I can finally poop after the 14th of July. The Centennial will be over by then, we'll be moved into our new home (assuming the planets ARE aligned now and things go smoothly.) The job transition is over and the work on getting the house sold is done (again assuming nothing goes wrong there.) -- finally Gwen and I will be able to take a breath for two seconds before the two babies arrive and make our lives crazier than they have been for the past month.

Buckle your seatbelts folks, it's going to be a crazy ride. And now blog, you understand why I've neglected you.

Obviously I'll have more later, until then... nothin' but love.

And thus I end my epistle.

Blog Clog - Dude, Where's my Plunger?

So it's been about a month. I dropped off the face of the Earth and apparently fell into a cess pool of masochist mayhem.

I've managed to get myself piled on with so many things, I don't have time to think, sleep or poop. That's right, it's not just the blog that's clogged. Nevertheless, I digress.

I haven't done much in way of lists on this thing, so let's do one tonight... this is what I have on my plate right now, so my "absence" from this digi-journal (digornio?) will feel somewhat justified: (These are definitely NOT listed in priority order.)

• Microsoft Exams: My employer has challenged me (and graciously paid for a 5-day "boot camp" of training) to take and pass 3 Microsoft certification exams to become a "Microsoft Certified Professional Developer" (or something to that effect; I hate acronyms...) I take my first test on Thursday.
• Side Job Project: A friend referred me to a company he works for to do a little data-entry piece of software over the next couple months. It's a fun ASP.net project that I get to use a cool new ORM/Data Access Layer library called SubSonic. So far it's really cool, and if I can get that time to poop, I may just also make the time to blog about SubSonic. Wow, I just used the terms SubSonic and poop in the same sentence. Dangerous. I'm a little excited (and frightened) for the comments on this post now.
• Jordan High Centennial - For 4 years, the Jordan Alumni Association has been working hard to set up this once-in-a-lifetime celebration. Now it's less than 80 days away and the action surrounding it is picking up momentum like a speeding freight train.
• Prepping the house to sell. Yep, with the news of twins on the way, our humble abode just won't accomodate us; so it's time to pack up and re-shack up in a newer, shinier, bigger adobe. Wow, I just used abode and adobe in the same sentence; say those ten times fast.
• Finding a new house. We started this venture before, but realized we need to finish paying off a couple more debts first; and finish prepping our home to sell. We'll start hitting it hard again in a few weeks, but are still putting out feelers and getting other balls in motion (talking to realtors/lenders/etc.) as we get closer to that goal.
• Work - Ah yes, the real job... the family away from family (since one spends more waking hours with them then your own family.) Can't forget that one. :)
• Church - Sunday actually FEELS like a day of rest, even though it's as busy as any of the other days in my week. It's nice to take a day of the week and devote it to the Lord and do something different to take one's mind off the incredibly fast-paced, quadruple overbooked lifestyle one lives the other six days of the week. Thank you, God, for the Sabbath.
• Family - Yes, I actually try to squeeze time in for my darling wife and beautiful children; who have been so very patient with me amidst all my stress. I thank God again that they have'n't killed or disowned me yet. They truly are a blessing. And I enjoy the time I get to spend with them; even if it's short lately. Voltron has become a fun nightly ritual for us...
• I've probably forgotten something, but it doesn't matter... that list is long enough.

I want to talk more about Voltron for a moment. For my birthday, I picked up the Season One DVD set of Voltron: Defender of the Universe. If you're not familiar with Voltron, it's a catroon from 1984 that had 5 Space Explorers who encountered a nasty bad guy on the Planet Arus. Planet Arus had a mighty robot named Voltron that was split into 5 parts... mechanical lions that could me piloted individually, then flown into formation and formed into the mighty robot Voltron. This, of course is the climax of the show... Voltron is formed, he whips out the blazing sword, and opens up a can on some robot beast sent by before mentioned nasty bad guy (who happens to be known as Zarkon.)

Anyway, I popped the DVD in and instantly had a smile permeate my face as I watched and rode the flood stream that was the nostalgia river in my head. Soon, the kids flocked around me to see what the cool "new" cartoon was. It has entered the ranks of, dare I say, "Kim Possible" in the Litster household. We've been watching an episode or two everynight for bedtime stories; and recently finished the first season.

It only took three days of neverending groveling of my cuties to get me to the store to purchase Season Two. Good times... and at least I have them still amidst the Chaos. I again thank the Lord for the time I get to spend with my family. It's definitely cherished.

Except for those times when 'tudes are copped and voices are raised. Those aren't so fun. My poor kids and wife; they feel the stress and have been affected by it as much as I have; despite my efforts to shield them from it.

The consolation is that, by July 8th - much of that list will be accomplished and moved to the past; and I can focus on slowing things down so I can take care of my wife who will be moving into the "you may be confined to bedrest soon" zone.

So for now, the blincoln blogs may be few, but my thoughts are with my family and friends always... enjoy the silence - you'll be hit with my onslaughts of long-windedness again soon enough.

And thanks for reading! My family and friends mean the world to me. I'm glad you're one of them.

Now I must be off to mind-meld with a Microsoft manual. Say that ten times fast and you'll win cupie doll; but only if you forward this to ten of your best friends in the next 5 minutes. Oh, and I almost forgot... close your eyes and make a wish too, and something cool will pop up on your screen. I didn't believe it either when I first read it, but trust me; it works!

The Gateway to Customer Service

I bought a killer 21" Gateway Monitor (FPD2185W) last August. It's been fantastic, with swivel action on both axes, height adjustment and rotation. It's got all the video hookups under the sun and a powered 4-port USB hub. It's been a fantastic ride for the last several months.

I had the monitor in a dual-monitor configuration. I had a lan party last weekend that required me to unhook it and use it in a single-monitor configuration. After hooking it back up in my office after the lan party, I went to re-enable my multi-monitor configuration.

Mind you it was still in single-monitor mode at the time; and the display was showing up on my killer Gateway monitor. When I re-enabled the multi-monitor... the screen blinked, but the other monitor didn't come on. The display was still solely on my LCD (my other monitor is a CRT.)

So I thought to myself, "Self, you should reboot the computer and see if it will go back to normal." I did so, and when it restarted... the display now came up on my CRT and NOT on my LCD anymore.

Playing with settings and uninstalling/reinstalling drivers for an hour didn't resolve anything. All display was stuck on my CRT with no hint of going elsewhere.

So I unhooked the LCD from my computer and hooked it up to Gwen's computer... no DVI love there either... so I swapped cables and still no love...

I decided to check the VGA port instead on the monitor to see if it was the DVI port that was the problem, or the whole monitor had given up the ghost. Well, the VGA worked, so I decided the DVI port was bad.

Enter Gateway support. I got on their website and figured out how to email support. Their first response came in hours and they asked me a few questions. We exchanged emails over the next several hours. I received one from them that agreed the monitor was defective and that they had already scheduled a replacement to ship to my home.

They cross-shipped the monitor to my home (on their bill) through Fed-Ex 2nd Day Air (I'll rant about Fed Ex' LACK OF SERVICE in another post) -- with an extra box to ship my defective monitor back in (also on their bill and also FedEx 2nd day.)

It was incredible... my monitor's DVI port went out on Saturday; I had the new monitor on Wednesday ... the defective monitor will be back to them by Tuesday.

One word... heavenly.

I wish all big companies would learn a lesson from Gateway... This is the way you build loyalty!!!!

I didn't receive any two emails from the same Gateway employee; but every email was signed with their name and badge number; and they were all intelligent, competent and professional; and all were sincerely concerned with getting me taken care of.

If that kind of service keeps up, I'll be recommending Gateway to others for a long time... Thanks Gateway!

Happy New Year

Well, a lot has happened since my last post. So much that it has kept me from entering anything here. (Likely story...)

Quick recap of December:

• Went through nice long two-week ordeal to get Comcast hooked up for my father so my parents could join today's world of digital information. It ended on a positive note thanks to a caring supervisor named Deann that helped me get things done. Brownie points for Comcast on this one for turning a negative into a positive.


• Several Christmas parties, including one for the Jordan High Alumni Association that was "Cowboy" themed. I took advantage of my "Dead Cow" nickname and went as a "Cow Boy" - which induced many comments including a great title for a movie I'll never make... "Dead Cows Don't Moo." Don't look for it in a theater near you.


• Two daughters' birthdays and an 11-year anniversary; celebrated with a trip to Chuck E Cheese with 9 of Mandi's close friends. Good times, good food, good luck fighting off the family cold caught from hundreds of children suffering winter's fate running around the Chuck E playground and arcade like chickens with their heads cut off. Happy Anniversary, honey. :)


• Lunch with a close friend of mine from my Supercom days (when it was Supercom USA), Lee Allred. Man I miss that crew... good times! Let's lunch it again soon, Lee.


• Lots of fun playing with JavaScript at work. Too bad I haven't had time to update that site either... I'm really pathetic.


• My grandmother on my father's side, (the last of my living blood grandparents,) went "Home" for Christmas on December 23rd. I spent some special last hours with her before she passed and had a wonderful spiritual conversation with my Aunt Sue. Thanks for that the both of you. We never know the lives we touch for good and I'm grateful for the ones that touch mine. I'm happy Grandma can now be with her sweetheart and my dad's twin that died just 17 hours after birth. What a sweet reunion that must've been. Merry Christmas, Grandma.


• Saw the "Work and the Glory III" - and after seeing the whole trilogy, I'm tempted to read the books... (as if I'll EVER find time for that... hehe!)


• Honored a tradition we've been doing for several years where we have my nephew Nick stay at our place the night before Christmas Eve (this time we went for a two-day stint) and have a game-fest on both consoles and computers with he, Brennan and I. It was a good time and we look forward to that every year.


• Had a wonderful Christmas with family close by - and the best part was some wonderful things our family was able to do to help some families less fortunate than we are. We've truly been blessed this year by our Heavenly Father and feel the true Spirit of Christmas when we have opportunities to "give back" a little. We thank the Lord for those opportunities and hope it made Christmas a little brighter for others.


• Attended Grandma Litster's funeral just before the New Year and enjoyed the wonderful tribute paid to such a sweet woman.


• Finally got some long needed mega-cleaning sweep action going on our house on New Year's Day

Which brings me to my resolutions for 2007... not a long list... really stuff I should've still been doing after my physical last spring.
I need to:

• Get back into my exercise routine and good eating habits that took me from being in the high-risk zone for bad cholesterol; to being right in the middle of the ranges medical professionals want us to be in.


• Finish my contact list for my Jordan Alumni website so the class representatives working on the Jordan High Centennial can have an easier time finding their classmates... and those having reunions from her on out can do the same; without having to go to that porn-ad infested website otherwise known as "Classmates" -- where there motto is... "We don't take away ads when you subscribe... we just give you access to the content you wouldn't otherwise have access to - IF you can find it buried under all our plethora of advertisments... good luck, you'll need it."


• Oh yeah, one more... take #1 in the World on the Island C2 track in TrackMania United!

So happy new year! I hope I'm able to stick to these resolutions and I hope you'll take yours seriously so you can accomplish your goals as well.

I'm a blumberjack and I'm okay...

So I finally gave in and decided to start sawing blogs. This is an experiment on several different levels.

The first is to see how good Google ads can REALLY match the content of one's site.

The second is to see how much my awful lack of communication skills can keep people's attention (despite my random babblings.) I am, as it were, the King of Babble-On. Don't believe me? Ask any of my friends (especially the ones I pay to stay as such.)

The third is to see if blogging this way really will be faster than the hand-coded HTML wanna-be blogs I've had running on my various other sites, of which I've had about as much time to update as a full-bottle of ketchup at a restaurant has to dispense fry-dipping goodness onto my plate.

So, from now on this will be my senseless, unfocused place to blather until I figure out how these silly things known as "blog" really work, and find out if they're worth it. Here I will attempt to entertain, vent, laugh about myself and my cute little family, Video Games me and my Friday Night Gaming crew are into, software development (including my much neglected and desperately needing attention JavaScript Jedi site), other technology babblings, goings-on about different groups of friends I'm trying to keep in touch with and more.

If my experiment succeeds, you'll see more of these popping up to go along with my other sites... so I might be able to keep them a little more up-to-date.

I hope you enjoy your stay here; cause heaven knows there are plenty other time-wasting blogs for you to go spend your time with... ;)