Which end is up?

I'm not complaining...I love my job. In fact, I was ridiculously excited to get into the office bright and early today and get that lovely first cup of coffee.

Now, I'm not quite sure which way to jump...I started with email, and screamed in horror that my web designer company wants to charge me $650 to create a simple form and $875 to adjust column size in a template.

It's about getting stuff off my plate and putting some form to the chaos that is IT. Sometimes it's about loud music and just cranking through stuff. I'm working hard, but I'm going in so many directions that it feels like I'm crawling along...So, today we're going to focus on three things...web site, accounting project and server build.

And then, the rest of my life will magically fall into order...43 Folders, baby, yeah.

Taken from journal entry on Saturday, March 28 while on a solitary trip to Glen Rose.
I went down to the river and , on the hill above, noted an eerie pavillion with white fabric, billowing in what appeared to be an unkempt manner, just across the river.

Venturing barefoot across the sandbag covered pipleline that is half-submerged, I recalled that the area across the river had once been a luxery camping spot, Buck's on the Brazos. Upon climbing the weed-choked bank, I entered an overgrown clearing with three decaying campsites and an abandonded picnic area, complete with fallen strands of christmas lights. All I could hear was my feet crunching through the dead grass and leaves and the snap of the aged fabric crackling in the wind.





Inside the ruined tents are bed frames with decaying mattresses and cast off bottles, all being reclaimed by the land around. It was exactly the kind of adventure I needed, despite the lack of zombies.



I so may have to go liberate this sign, half hidden under a tent...



You can see the rest at my flickr page...

Pirates...on Facebook

It made me ridiculously happy today when Holly told me about the pirate language setting on FB. Yes, it's completely cheesy, so why wouldn't I jump all over it.

I couldn't sleep last night...if you are already overly tired, and it's post-midnight, don't start watching Criminal Minds. Nothing like creepy late night viewing pleasure.

I'm working hard to be productive and get the myriad of 'immediates' done, but i'm amazed at how the day passes so quickly!

What're you gonna do?

I'm excited. I had mentioned to one of my company's owners that I am hoping to do some work for Equest on its network. He now wants to accompany me when I go out to visit with them to see what they do. He's also very involved in Dallas non-profit efforts and could be a terrific source of help for this non-profit as well.

Here's the thing. I'm incredibly lucky, being gainfully employed at a great company, despite losing my job last year. Not only that, but I need some "good for the soul" type stuff to do. As well as something that Micah and Ginger can participate in with me on, so that we're teaching him about philanthropy and doing stuff together.

One idea is to get a group of friends together for a Saturday morning group cleaning up of the White Rock Lake area-For Love of the Lake sponsors a clean up there one weekend a month, but will help out with that on any weekend. So we'd clean up a beautiful area for a few hours, then have everyone over for a hearty weekend breakfast! It's social, and socially responsible.

Wanting more...

I can't say that I like some of the ramifications of this age of immediate information that we have joined with such great enthusiasm. On one hand, it is wonderful to keep up with what friends and acquaintances are doing on a social networking site such as Facebook. On the other hand, some information does not need to be disclosed over such a medium.
On Saturday morning, I found out that one of my best friends from high school, Stephanie, had died the night before. I discovered this by reading some very benedictory messages on the "wall" of her Facebook profile, and then emailing a mutual friend to find out what happened and if it was true. She did exactly the right thing-emailing me and then talking to me on the phone. Some things don't need to be done via the Internet.
It struck me, again, that I am left wanting more from Stephanie. We had talked about getting coffee soon, and catching up, and it just hurts to know that isn't going to happen. This is not an uncommon thing...When Andrea died, I felt like someone had ripped out my heart, but was thankful that I had seen her prior to that and that we had made some amends to the argument we were having. But I was left wanting more.
The same is true for Dr. Mabery...his plane crashed as I was driving back to Dallas to meet him for lunch. I was left wanting more and couldn't believe that he was really gone. Or even just stopping by Mary's house to say hi, not knowing she was dead inside.
I think you know where I'm going with this...Yes, when those we love and care for are taken from us, it would be idiotic to think that we wouldn't want more. But, I think the lesson here is to make the most of what we've got now, so we're not left regretting that we didn't make time to get coffee.
I suppose I could have just written "Life is short, enjoy those around you" but I'd rather do things the hard way...Goodbye Stephanie, I wish we had been able to get coffee...

Timing...

It's rainy, soon to be icy, and I am struggling with motivation today...I've been immersing myself in the new job, and absolutely love it, but I'm a bit worn out. Still, it won't be much more than three to six months before I have everything under control.
Speaking of, I have to go do some quick troubleshooting...

and I thought my weekend was rough....

One of my friends, Jessica, is having to have rabies shots, after a too playful encounter with a stray dog. Ouch.
My weekend was okay, although I seem to be completely preoccupied by the new company and everything that needs to be done. It is a bit overwhelming at times. I thought I was going to make major progress this weekend, and made some, but not enough. I had taken in an external drive to run backups on, and couldn't figure out why it kept failing. As it turns out, the drive is FAT32, which has a 4 gigabyte file size limit. Silly me. I definitely feel sheepish.
G and I went to see a play about Don Juan Tenario (Don Juan as a vamp...) which was decent, but long winded. We didn't stick around for the conclusion, having had enough in the opening 90 minutes-I was still fighting my three day headache, and wasn't thrilled with the 6 feet away yelling...very small theatre. However, that did make me want to get out more and see some more plays.
So...today, I'm going to survive work here, head to Fry's and buy a new external drive that is NTFS formatted, walk the dogs, eat dinner as G's cooking, then swing by the new company and hook that up...Then, late at night when all the recruiters are in bed, I'll shut down Domino and back every mother-f'in thing up, start Domino back up, and life will be good, know that I have accomplished SOMETHING productive.
Exciting, huh? In lighter news, I was convinced we were going to have problems about Micah's Halloween costume. He wanted to be Michael Myers from Halloween the movie, which I really don't think is appropriate. However, he solved it himself, by saying he wanted to make his costume, with claws, etc. Plus, he wants to use the shield that Jerry gave him for his birthday, and I got him a Ringwraith costume to go with the rest, and I'm thinking that he can wear the dinosaur headress/helmet he made at art camp this summer...I'm so proud of him for coming up with his own idea.