So this thing called sleep….

Got some much needed rest today, it has been a busy week – I have been busy at work a lot more than usual, which isn’t a bad thing, just seems lately a lot going on at work and between it and business, it has been a little busy – but a wonderful Friday night, a fun evening with Leslie and James tonight who they gave a delish dinner a fun game – quite delightful! A nice change from the week before it all, but sadly these weekends never seem to last long enough!

In other news, pondering V-Day coming up, as well as B-Day – V-Day is one I am unsure of what to do – I want to keep things simple and personal vs. the traditional idea out there – I realize I may be cutting it short but still pondering options, thinking maybe a simple dinner here at home, small gift, flowers, and maybe if weather willing a nice walk? Again something different — now B-Day, I think Sara and I talked that out last night @ dinner, going for a nice gathering @ Church – allows me to invite the church, as well as friends and family – and no major cost of going someplace… unless someone comes up with some crazy good idea lol.

Anywhoo – it has been a good weekend thus far – tomorrow I am hoping is a really good day good music set for the service, youth I hope will be positive – still need to have a meeting and get on the same page, and who knows what else the day will offer, but for now, going to zone out to a movie, eat a little junk food, and pass out after maybe 2 out of the 6 pack of cream soda ;) Night all have a blessed Sunday.

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February 7, 2010 by Chuck Brown in General
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Family

Today we put my grandparents ashes to rest, it’s been a interesting couple weeks for me as things grew closer as most dates loom closer in my life I tend to reflect/remember – the ol brain tends to go and think back, I had a lot of good memories with my grandparents, and hard to think that over a decade has passed since they both passed away, but I do still think fondly of them and remember the little things that happened over the years – but the service today was amazing, and they will be remembered for my entire life.

But today wasn’t a day of sadness, more of happy remembrance, time spent with family – got to chat with my sister about happenings in my life, which was good, had a similar one with my brother last weekend at the beach – both taking a bit of a inventory on my life and seeing where I am at, as things have changed over the last 2 years or so for me, I have not always been around to chat with as much as I was in the past, being the wacky semi-anti-social-homebody, but it was good to catch up with them – always nice to know folks are looking out for me, as it seems many are as of late.

It was a good day for sure, some family was rumored to be coming in, but didn’t so it ended up being a very simple service, my recording was about 9 minutes long – but I think for 13 years in the making it was a very nice service, with my grandparents 2/4 children present + 2 spouses + 1 in-law, 5 grandkids + 2 spouses, 4 great grandkids, 2 church members – was very good indeed.

Anywhoo – going to try and get back to sleep, crashed out earlier, day took a bit out of me, and I did get a lot done, just was a blessed day indeed. Hope everyone has a good Tuesday. Night!

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February 2, 2010 by Chuck Brown in General
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A day of beauty!

It has been a while since I have got to wander around with my camera and take some photos, today I did get to do such a thing! Big thanks to Chris White for inviting me up the hill to take some great shots! Full collection of “Ready to Post” stuff is up on FB and Flickr – however I played with a few extras ;) Hope everyone enjoys them!

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January 30, 2010 by Chuck Brown in General
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The week without rest…

This week has been a doosy.  Lack of sleep, busy projects, overactive brain – you name it, it’s happening :) Big thing that has been thinking back fondly some is my grandparents service on Monday the internment of their ashes, a long time coming – grandpa getting a full military ceremony – I miss my grandpa, my dad’s folks I know, and I love em, but my mom’s parents were both active in my life growing up, my grandfather was a minister, and an amazing example of knowing his bible, loving people, and had a mean Urkel impersonation, not to mention the early AM fishing trips, was good stuff – my grandma taught me various things about cooking, sewing, and was the one to spoil us with the Nile theatre back when it was the cheap movie place to get to on the get bus – it’s been a while since they have passed, but this service has stirred some emotions and memories – good stuff, few times this week just tried to stay lost in those good memories than deal with this week’s insanity ;)

Work has been a tad nuts, Monday will start off pretty fast paced, got a lot of things going, but also have a few things I am ahead on, which is nice – but aside from the day to day grind, I have been fiddling with the backend code and putting in some changes on MyBakersfieldChurch – at this point I am just throwing out some of the old code, and throwing in new, I am working tomorrow on the backend that stores the churches, it’s currently just a hodgepodge of posts in Wordpress, but I am going to try and make it stored as sheer data, not posts, then I can build a template and fill it in, vs. one church one way and another church completely different with no form or function.

Last post – has gotten me a lot of attention, folks I didn’t know read here… apparently do. :) but some encouraging words from various people one or two who actually thanked me for my post saying its what they needed to hear – glad it was a good thing and helpful, just something on my heart – sometimes you just have to post things :) but thanks to everyone for their feedback, and encouragement.

Anywhoo – just wrapping up my day really disconnected from the net, some twitter and email but thats about it, not a day of social networking insanity, just worked thru the final bits of the stressful day, and made it home for a mellow evening with my cousin – now though vs. more in-depth mumblings, I am going to call it a night, shut off alarms, and see tomorrow when it comes. :) Night all!

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January 30, 2010 by Chuck Brown in General
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The Constant Guide to Dating

I shave my beard – people notice it – and disapprove, others say I’m 12 ;)

If I change my wardrobe (aka wear pants) – people notice it – and disapprove, some like it a LOT!

I have a relationship with a lovely lady – people notice it – and give me the how-to.

I haven’t really talked about this relationship right now mainly because, it’s still new for me, and I am not sure what is okay to post about and what is not, a lot has been on my mind about it, and I start to form my own ideas, and thoughts, and plans, but then I get the bits from everyone of what I am doing horribly right, horribly wrong, and I think I even got one “Why are you hanging out with this girl?!” joking of course, but such is friends.

I think it’s safe to say though that I am not the dating king, I am not some romeo with all the right moves (at least I don’t think so) but I do know, I am not wanting to take this fast, as I am not that way in general, risks and me are not always something I rush into, but this relationship in general is a risk to me, its being vulnerable and being open to someone, trying new things, having fun, creating memories, etc. etc. while we don’t have an official label as of yet, and maybe dangerous to throw this verse up – the focus and goal of my relationship is this:

(NIV) 1 Corinthians 13 – 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self‑seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails.

The big part I focus on in my relationship is the italic version, patience and kindness. I dunno, I am quick to say I love someone, because its part of who I am, she jokes I am Switzerland (aka Neutral) and like everyone, but there are some folks I occasionally have a beef with, but that whole don’t let the sun go down on your anger is something I try to stick to and have issues with folks resolved – not to say I am a floormat for people to wipe their feet on, trust me, I know how to defend myself, but 9/10 if we look at ourselves and let our pride fall down and apologize, many things can be resolved… but I get off course.

This past weekend I had an amazing time away at the beach, of course this led to folks at work asking things like:

  • “Have you kissed yet?!”
  • “Did you guys bom-chika-wa-wa?”
  • “Weekend alone? Wink wink!”
  • “Did you take her to meet your parents?” (my favorite as we went to the beach with my mom) lol
  • “How long have you been together? Weekend away is HUGE! I waited till we’d been going out a year!”

I know I am not the world’s perfect man – I may not be the most keen on always picking up on what she’s hinting at, feeling, etc. I do my  best to be observant and try to get where she’s comfortable and not, but many times while my own overthinking kicks in and makes some things bigger than they probably are or need to be, lately it seems more and more I am getting additional thoughts/feedback on this evolving relationship from everyone – and some of it gets stuck in my head as the “time-table” of dating, but honestly where is this timetable written?

Honestly things like kissing I figure if i have waited very soon 30 years to kiss someone, what’s a day? a month? a week? a year? I want it to be right. Has she met my parents? Yup, they were in the list of folks who really liked her and suggest I meet her, I mean she is in their Sunday School class! Did we go to snuggling on a couch watching movies before holding hands? Yup. Time-tables aren’t set in stone, there is no book I can buy to the “time-table to the prefect relationship” each is different and has it’s own time-table, ours has definitely been a interesting one, if you recall other postings from this very blog.

I know folks are putting forth suggestions from their own previous/current relationships, and wanting to in most cases be sure I am doing “OK” as some old friends know the hurts I have gone thru in relationships past where I have been hurt by opening up too much too soon, and I have friends who want to make sure I am not setting myself up for hurt, but that is the risk in this life with love, while I don’t want to say we are heading for failure, in any relationship in this imperfect world can end, hurt, heart break, but for the first time in many years I found a gal who I am willing to take that risk for, as I don’t think she really knows how amazing she is, but I find myself smiling even just thinking about her, she has a big heart, a great love for the Lord, encourages me when I’m down, and encourages me to try new things, and is incredibly beautiful, I am incredibly blessed to have her in my life.

So I am not trying to discourage folks from giving me advice, making suggestions, and being supportive friends – at the same time I think I know what she felt like that first week, and it’s not a great place to be when your trying to have a relationship on your own terms, and folks are excited for you – but they set this bar high and throw out all the things that one should be doing – its nice, but overwhelming in just trying to get to know each other, I welcome fun date ideas – ideas for general going out, but if you want to check in please do, I am not really trying to stop people from caring just throwing out there that I’m not normal/standard, and my time frame is most likely different from your own ;)

Anywhoo – that’s all I got, been on my mind after a day of folks checking in, I again do appreciate folks being curious about how I am doing, and excited to see me with my dumb grin on my face as I am re-counting fun weekend/evening/outing – just need one less thing to overthink by playing with this order of events that apparently exists in how things are supposed to go down – so I am going to head into a Tuesday now, hopefully a continued good day on this week of what I hope will continue to be good – I hope you all have a good Tuesday too. Night.

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January 26, 2010 by Chuck Brown in General
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My Nicer Weekend

The previous week was a tad insane – looking forward to the weekend was a big bit of my “don’t explode” mentality for the last half of the week, and I managed it ;) got Sara, Mom and Me to the beach and we had a great time! My sister-in-law is a great hostess, we had a blast! I must say a relaxing weekend and great company ;)

I could go into details, but I have 5 minutes left on my lunch break, so it will be brief – weekend played out with food, relaxing, kiddos, exploring, butterflies, ocean, beached boats, driving, more tasty food, movie, and church + more tasty food ;)

I’ll possibly post more, my mom tossed up some photos, I do need/want to get a new p&s, flash is dead on my newer one, going to go slim this time, and found a lot of good reviews of some under $200 cameras, so nothing ultra fancy, just kind of sad the big one died, Canon isn’t responding so probably going Oly P&S this time, but going to give Canon one more shot – hopefully their support site will be online today.

Anywhoo – back to the grind, boss is having me re-build his laptop back to original standards before shipping it out to his son and buying himself a new laptop, so lots to do this afternoon! Thanks to everyone for their prayers for the trip, went over great, fun had by all! Back to reality!

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January 25, 2010 by Chuck Brown in General
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My Crazy Week

So it has been one of those weeks. Okay, maybe not that kind your thinking of off the bat, but it has been rough indeed, sort of all started Monday coming into power outage #8 I think it was, as usual we find new areas of the building that probably need power protection (at least surge!) but if not battery – basically this entire week was slated to be storms, and so my first thought coming in was “I wonder if we will/have lost power yet?” we had, and as usual, we had folks turning stuff back on only to have the power flip off 5 minutes later, so like my vacation to Washington, things died.

I got the first note on my desk as I walked in, a monitor no longer was starting up, the computer seemed to boot and flash lights, but other things were a-foot, and that meant getting back to the non-working LCD later, but the other “eh” issues were a computer which DID have a UPS was dead in the water, the UPS was no-good. So we had 3 in waiting and thus I got to quickly unpack 3 APC UPS’s for the Order Entry department – oh oh but the fun didn’t stop there, no really – TONS of fun to follow.

I had more calls to follow after 3 APC’s were placed and online, made the OE department a tad more stable – so I was called next door, they were having things go off and on and wanted to know if they should leave things off, I said yes – we were having power outages about every 15 minutes or so, and it was a blip, not an extended outage, so SURGE CITY! but folks kept trying to do work – thankfully from the last power caused hardware death, we have the servers and networking gear on BIG UPS units, even at their current load each has at least 3 hours of run time (if not more) so servers had zero issues. To follow this good news and happy thought was the big item to die. The printer.

We have a BIG DFX-5000+ series Epson printer, basically it’s a beast of a linefed printer, does all of the packing slips for shipments more or less, and it didn’t want to power on after about outage #19 or so, I looked at things, dusted things out, checked for a fuse – nothing, I got it to boot one more time, however it would not print, so we apparently had a backup in storage in the warehouse, they grabbed it, it was more dead than the first – so we had to re-work the department install some software of one of the two smaller printers to get things back online – not a huge deal, but with power going off and on and off and on, it got a tad annoying – but we got it sorted, things were starting to mellow – outages became further apart – till nothing at all, we had power, it seemed stable – life was once again good, sure a $3000 printer was dead, but the day must go on to find an additional death… the LCD.

The LCD was easily cured by using one of my tech bench machines monitor’s as a replacement, not the solution that was perfect, but it does give me an excuse to get a bigger monitor ;) so the grand total, all things considered if you go by the original prices paid for the printer and the lcd, ~$3200 in dead hardware. Which led to trying to find the older DFX line from Epson, and finding the old vendor we used previously for older hardware had one in stock – so it is ordered, and now I am just holding off on the LCD purchase, may just get something from Costco/Officemax/OfficeDepot – just haven’t had time to focus on it, and it’s not a huge priority.

But that was the start of my week, the rest has been an increase in the usual, but also a “How can this not happen again” type of dialog, and it all goes back to suggestions I have had before but were not looked at as a good idea due to cost, but when you loose that much in 2 times, a little investment is an okay thing ;) so were looking at power options to make sure workstations have at least 2-5 minutes to close out things and shut down cleanly.

So work is work, Wednesday I had the youth to my self, we had another less in which they just really weren’t interested – so I followed up with plan B which was a questionnaire to see what the youth are wanting, few ideas I have had passed on to me of course were met with some interest, but even our visitors seemed excited – so it was a good night, hoping that I can get together in the next week or so with the other leaders and get a game plan and really take to heart some of these thoughts from the youth and see things move forward.

Tomorrow is small groups after work, going to try and make it, but 2nd night in a row I’m going to be taking Tylenol for some leg pain and be in bed before 2am (working on it) so hoping to be awake and alive for it – Friday going to head out after work for the magical land of Grover Beach, hopefully in time for some fro-yo, but if not there’s always Saturday. :)

Anywhoo – a busy week, looking forward to the weekend – but tonight ended good, got to chat and hang out with my mom as I did laundry and loafed on her couch and bummed the interweb :) I made it home about an hour ago and found a note in the door from Sara, missed her stopping by – but the note was much nicer than the ones the landlord leaves, but I may be changing that up soon – considering a few house options I may actually go look at, one for around $80k thinking about getting a bit more and canceling out some cards/car payments and simplify my monthly budget a bit more ;) but thoughts for another week! For now off to bed – sleepy, but blessed. Night all.

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January 21, 2010 by Chuck Brown in General
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