Mostly Alive… Sorta. Yeah.

Soooo what a week thus far, 1 more day to go, but it’s been quite a ride. Apparently the cat is out of the bag finally, with the co-owner of the company coming in for a week, and an investor showing up, folks got the hint that the company may be up for sale - though from what I am gathering from long-timers, this has been attempted once before, and nothing happened, so time will tell - maybe they’ll give me an IT budget but hopefully tomorrow I can work out something for my hope of a firewall and 15 computers.

I have been considering my DVD renting practices, as it stands I am doing Netflix, but I am getting bored of it, the online watching is cool, but limited to Windows, not a HUGE deal, as currently my media rig is Vista, but Netflix seems to of slowed, I recall getting DVD’s quickly, but last took about 4 days to get, and when I did get it, snapped in two. I realize this happens, BUT with Blockbuster, I could take in the envelope and tada, new DVD, cost is the only thing that I am weary about when it comes to price, as it stands with Netflix, I am on the lowest plan with live watching, but even at unlimited 1 out, and unlimited in-store exchange, it’s $22 a month, BUT that does mean instant change, not wait 4 days for a new movie - so I am considering it after I get the last of these bills paid.

iPhone is doing well, T-Mobile’s data speeds seem very nice as of late, and since I got off the 2Wire DSL at work, much more stable wireless across the board, it hops between the Linksys’s just fine, and allows me access to my mail in a quick pinch, plus SSH, just need to get my key on there so I can easily get onto servers vs ssh -> home -> server.

Sleep has been better lately, for a week or so it was out of order, as it can become with me, and yet again someone suggesting that I may suffer from insomnia - again I suppose it’s possible, I just think I have a very different way of sleeping… yeah that’s it! But so far so good, some good rest and I woke up only a little groggy not flat out exhausted.

Anywhoo - more tomorrow as it has become my weekly blogging day it seems sometimes, but for now I am going to go and stare at some code… yay.

Yup, It’s the Weekend

So the week is done, twas a long one, with little sleep, but I am alive, and probably going to pass out here in a minute, but just figured I’d post a note.

A good week overall I’d say, the iPhone is doing well, with all the talk of 3G I have considered taking it back, but at the same time, it works, it does what I need, WiFi will always be faster, and granted 3G speeds will beat that of EDGE, at the end of the day Edge is more widespread, and like last time AT&T’s big data release, unless they REALLY learned from last time, we’ll probably see more outages, and for those who get it for T-Mobile’s 3G being rolled out, outages there too I’d imagine… if it’s not locked into AT&T’s 3G network!

Anywhoo - busy day tomorrow, meeting about servers in the afternoon, probably a service call in the morning across the street to look at a DVD Burner Issue, and Dinner later that evening with friends, so busy busy - so I am going to crawl over to my bed, start up the movie where I left off, and dream happy dreams. Night.

T-Mobile iPhone

So I may have a new phone, and by that I have 14 days to give the iPhone a drive, of course now that it’s out of the box, it’s $40 less back, but at the same time, $40 for a test drive of a internet device, not bad - I know previously I have bad-mouthed the iPhone, and I still have my reservations about it’s abilities and such, but all in all it’s not a bad device thus far, having some hands on time with it at the store, I then took a 3 1/2 hour side-trip to Dan’s for game night.

Can’t say I had a lot of “iPhone Fever” everyone else had rushing home to get it running, it’s a test, and to me that’s not something to be rushed, especially when $400+ is on the line, this device has to have it’s tires kicked, and I have to make sure 100% it fit’s my needs, but so far the “unlock” process went very smooth - had to get 3 files, patched, and good to go - currently it even reads “T-Mobile” at the top, but even on that end I am not 100% sure I’ll be loyal to T-Mobile.

AT&T has some decent offerings, even going to borrow an AT&T SIM and give it a whirl, I have one, but it isn’t activated, but honestly it’s looking good right now, at around $85 a month roughly (which is the price in my mind after taxes/fees) it’s a pretty sweet deal, and where I have 5 favs now, I’d get roll-over minutes in return, so I may switch to Death Star, not 100% sure yet.

I’ll post my unboxing as well as some more thoughts in the days to come, for now I just want to give this thing some test runs… so it’s of to sync some movies, and browse the features/functions. More later.

Hello Weekend!

Sleep has been the big topic this weekend, me and my pillow have been chatting quite frequently, and I think in a minute or two I am going to go back and do it some more but in between the naps I have been looking at the iPhone & iPod Touch, there is a part of me that thinks “Overpriced, Under Featured, No Expandability” etc. I have not been a fan, I mean as a buzz item, it is cool, and the mobile web end of things is very nice - but as a user of PalmOS and PPC/WM I am used to the idea I can go out, find a app, and bingo, ready to go, sadly even with the release of the SDK it appears that Apple won’t allow any ol Joe to download and create.

That is my worry, while the iPhone would be handy for Email & Web, that’s really about it - even recent reports have noted that nearly +40% of iPhones are used primarily for data access, so that pushes me towards the Touch, but no camera, no mobile data, only Wifi - so no easy pick, and on top of that with a possible 3G version of the iPhone looming it may be wise to wait, but I have been looking at options from all camps with no real show-stopper, Palm seems to of gone the cowardly lion route and scaled back what used to be big bold moves at the pressure of the few, Windows Mobile, clunky, expensive TCO, and on that end for a more complex WM phone, usually larger, bulky, non-form-factor-friendly.

So needless to say I am looking still, I am sure there are those out there who could give me all the benefits for the iPhone, the part that is the “nail in the coffin” so to speak, is AT&T (Formerly Cingular) - never cared for their service, their CS in the past was a pain, and that “may” of changed, but not sure how their coverage locally has, so who knows - Verizon has told me they can get me a 1yr contract on a modem for Mobile “Broadband” but the thing I hate is everything else has gone unlimited with them, but their data has a 5GB cap, not that I’d use it, but for that rough month, it could be a pain, plus $0.49 per MB? If they made it GB I’d say “We have a deal!”

Anywhoo - that’s my rant, I have a bit of gadget fever, just with trying to be more flexible and mobile I am finding more road-blocks, the next area I am going to look is Verizon USB capable UMPC form factor systems, granted it’d be windows, BUT, I do own Outlook, and I’m not afraid to use it! Have a Blessed Sunday, and if your in the Bakersfield area, check out the Picnic in the Park - free goodies, fun, followed by service in the park as well - heck if you come find me, we may goto Carrows/Cindy’s/Denny’s afterwards and hang out (we do that sometimes… were cool lol) - Night Folks!

God is Good, Taxes Done, Sleep Coming, Wheee!

So yes, it’s 2am. I finished the last bits of my final number crunching, and I have come to a conclusion, it is so time for accounting software and taking the time to learn it. TN has been growing slowly, nearly 10k more in this past year, and about another 1k in actual profit made, and of course, this year is going to be no different, with costs lowered on my end, and in turn also offering more to customers, I see some growth, but then also this calendar year I have a W2 coming, fun fun. In the end I paid more than last year (which I expected) the total was $282 (about $100~ more than last year), and as usual, state is no refund, nothing due. PTL.

Lots of prayer during taxes, TurboTax always scares the crap out of me every year, as it keeps a running tally of Tax owed, then after areas adds in the new deductions - so at one point I had $1,925 in taxes, and just started praying as I went over numbers again and again, (I need sleep) - only to run thru things, and finally say the classic “Your will be done” as over the last week funds have been coming in very steady, so I figured God was preparing me for taxes, well after hitting next to go into the new area, it re-calculated and it was less, then I got EIC and we arrived, lots of prayer tonight, and really a lot over the last few days, stress at work, taxes looming, and the upcoming court fun of my ticket, going to call the courts today from work and see what they say, if I can just pay it and do traffic school, so game.

Sleep is nearing, just HAD to get taxes done, and with the e-File it’s already post marked today, but again as I say every year, I want to do next year better, and I may form a LLC for ThrustNet and go from there, not 100% sure, but it may be time for an accountant as well - but with work in under 6 hours, I should probably wrap it up.

Anyhwoo - I’ll hit up the blog tomorrow from work, just been busy, tad crazy, and in this job I feel like I am re-living my first year of businesses as I am once again having hassles with what used to be Arrival, but at some level it’s not their fault, and yet they aren’t working with us either, long story, more later I am sure, but for now — thanks for all the prayers, thanks to folks who IM’d me tips on dealing with my court date if I indeed have to go, good stuff, much appreciated - but I must sleep, winds finally lived up to their purpose and brought the temp from 80F->52F lovely. Night folks. More later. Wheeeee!

Back to Work!

Soooooo quite a weekend. Got to relax some over the weekend, a very very relaxed Saturday, got to eat food with my friends, and was even joined by the one, the only Dan-o! it was a good day, got some things done, projects finally just out of my court off into others, and a few more I plan to do the same with this week, just one at a time, bam bam bam, get them out of my court into the clients.

Then we lead into Sunday. 7am wake up, 730am out the door, arrive at church a little before 8, wearing pants *Gasp!* got to warm up a bit, didn’t realize we were also singing the congregational hymns as well, but no worries I made it thru, we sang our one special song, it was fun, I did ok, but I got to sing. Something I haven’t done at Church (well in a group) for quite some time, so it was indeed a blessing for me to really just get to belt it out with the choir - it was a fun day, followed up with a night @ The Hub, which was a little bare, but there is a group down in Mexico right now doing a mission trip, so I imagine some parents and high-schoolers who’d normally fill a row or two, were off across the border doing their thang.

We lost one @ the table tonight for Carrows (the Sunday Night Place) - so me and Scott snagged dinner, it was tasty, then I headed over to Poon Manor, and got to see Dan’s parents, the niece and nephews, saw the new game were looking to give a whirl, and just got to chat with Dan a bit, which was indeed awesome as with my work and such and him and val having a baby and all, sometimes things with work-able time tables get a tad sideways, but were making the time, and it’s good to see his family.

Anywhoo - that’s the rundown, after Friday off to recover from chicken-strips, I head back into a work week ready to tackle problems, get things ready to roll, and looking forward to some fun with Dan and Fam, as well as assorted other random fun soon! Hopefully the ticket will come soon, and I can figure out my budget, but sadly it looks like once again, I am going to be waiting on the apartment, not totally bummed, it is in the road-map, but one step at a time, God has a plan, and I am attempting to be more patient to let his time table happen, vs. my own So have a wonderful Monday, even if you think your getting a case of the Monday’s ignore it and remember the simple truth: “This is the day that the Lord hath made, I will be glad and rejoice in it.”. Night folks.

Stupid Chicken…

So what happens when you eat Chicken strips @ a local “brewery” feel sick, get thru the work day, only to get a 30m nap, then off to a evening with friends, tasty Chinese food, fun bowling, a piece of cheese cake and hot coco from Denny’s - well the Chicken wins. Oi.

Today I have taken my first sick day, probably one of the few I’ll ever take I’d imagine - just too tired to drive safely to work, still achy from puking my guys out this morning, and I got no sleep, so I am kind of half working from home, half taking it easy and laying on my bed, so far so good, been checking in on work email, got the work cell primed, but thus far things are running smoothly out there, granted it’s a 20 minute drive away, so if I am REALLY needed, I can always bum a ride from one of the rents, but I doubt I’ll need to.

All in all this week has been good though, some minor irritations at work, mainly resulted from some people letting their personal problems leak into their day-to-day job @ the office, throw in a time change… a little ruff, but I made it thru short of food poisoning, looking forward to next week - but also have some projects to get rolling this weekend, more tax work, get RM up and running, email upgrade tonight for Horde, also publish the new “Enhanced Email” setup pricing for FH, maybe get some time on TN if I can wing it, so a busy but hopefully relaxing weekend.

Well I have been sitting up too long, so I am going to head back to the bed to zone out a bit more, maybe drop in a movie - going to attempt lunch when it comes around, just not sure I’ll be ready for solid food just yet… soon. Have a lovely Friday everyone!