Current Brainstorms
Monday, September 30, 2002
This morning I picked up my copy of the
Dallas Morning News to see a giant photo of some of the cowboy's players celebrating their
13-10 victory over the St. Lois Rams. I had seen the highlights the night before and knew that it was a close game, but my reaction on seeing the paper was mixed. I decided it could be one of two things:
1. It was a REALLY slow news day
2. It really was a miracle that the Cowboys won. (I'll not mention that the Rams are 0-4)
9:41 AM Posted by Big Dave
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Saturday, September 28, 2002
Well I have been uncharacteristically quite for the last week. Oddly enough, I have also been equally busy. The job is going wonderful. I still feel like I would like to know everything immediately, but I think I'm picking it up very quickly. I have several stories so this will be a long post... Continue at your own discretion.
Two weeks ago I was really sick right before starting work. Desiree and I had planned to celebrate my new job by taking a trip to the
Fort Worth Zoo which we unfortunately had to postpone. I got better and started the job with just a little sore throat. By the end of the week, I was tired but happy. I felt like I could be productive almost immediately. That's a really good feeling after you've been idle for a while.
Friday night (9/20) Desiree (Dezi) and I went to
The Colony High School football game against
Wichita Falls. It was The Colony's homecoming and watched the game. We left a little after half-time. The game was much better than I had anticipated. We had originally postponed the trip to the Zoo to that Saturday. Instead I asked if she would like to make a whirlwind trip to
Abilene so that she could... (dum dum DUM!) Meet the family. After a couple of quick phone calls to her parents and mine it was set. I picked her up the next morning and we hit the road pretty early. Abilene is about a 3 hour drive from Lewisville. I think we left about 8:30, but we hit Abilene just shy of noon. My mom had called while we were on our way. She asked where we were so I told her we were about 60 miles outside of Abilene. Her response was, "I suppose I should quit cleaning the house and go clean myself up." A little miscommunication. She thought we were going to be there about 1:00 or so. Anyway...
We get there and my dad has been off at an estate sale. He came home with some interesting toys including a Boy Scout Handbook and a really weird hookah-looking coffee maker. My parents were marvelous gracious hosts. I was laughing on the inside during part of the visit. I wanted to show Dezi around Abilene. We decided to go play since it was a beautiful day and I suggested the
Abilene Zoo. Now I will admit it is nothing compared to the FW Zoo, but it was still a lot of fun. I told my parents what we were doing and they asked if they could come along. I agreed, but was very surprised. My mom told me the last time she went to the Zoo was probably to take either my brother's or my cub scout pack there for one reason or another. We went and had a fun time. My mom with her ever present digital camera took pictures of everything. She snapped the really cute picture on the right. That's my dad with us in front of the Buffalo pin. (No you can't see the buffalo)
After the zoo we went to get drinks somewhere and ended up at the deli in the HEB store. From there we went to see my aunt and uncle and their new baby (4 mos.) Rachel. (Who my dad calls Susie. Poor kid is going to have an identity crisis.)
Olive Garden with the fam. Looking at pictures from their trip to Holland and the Netherlands. Hanging out with Braden. And a very long (seemingly) drive back round out our little trip. Approvals were given all around. It was a fun trip, but I was exhausted the next day.
Anyway... today we are finally going to the Fort Worth Zoo. Last night we went to see the
Rangers play
Oakland. It was such a beautiful night. It's been a beautiful couple of weeks. Eventually I will go camping. The sooner the better in my opinion. Frequency is always a plus too. Dang social calendar getting in the way. (I'm just kidding) I love being busy. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Tonight we are entertaining/baby-sitting three of Dezi's cousins. Possible
Monster's Inc. action with a little chocolate chip cookie action thrown in there. It's a rough life isn't it?
Every now and then you can just sit back and look at your life and say, "Ahhhh...." This is one of those times. I like this girl a lot. Which both scares and excites me. The insane part about it is she feels the same way. What will/can happen, who knows. For now I am just enjoying the ride. That's one piece of advice from a good friend that I'll definitely have to hang on to.
That and another piece of advice from Sean. Three little phrases to get you out of most predicaments. "You're right. I'm wrong. I'm sorry." Your own variations are highly encouraged, but the overall message must remain intact.
9:51 AM Posted by Big Dave
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Friday, September 20, 2002
The
Texas A&M vs.
Virginia Tech will be televised on ABC at 2:30 Saturday. With that in mind I thought I would share a jewel I found on the
TexAgs web site.
Hokie Haikus
1:31 PM Posted by Big Dave
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Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Here's a fun story that I thought I would relate:
I have a buddy who works for Cisco out in California. He loves to play with toys and of course takes a some of them into the office. He has everything from juggling balls and super balls to mini remote controlled cars. Sunday he was a Target and saw legos on sale. They had the huge bins with a whole bunch of parts. So he spends about 20 bucks on legos and takes them into the office the next morning. Apparently the legos are a hit. He's already had people schedule time to go play with the legos in his office.
9:10 AM Posted by Big Dave
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Tuesday, September 17, 2002
Mister Peterson, My I be excused? My brain is full.
Ok... Second day on the job. Potentially not that hectic. Yeah right!. I am SO confused. I feel bad trying to grab someone to walk me through this b/c they have a lot more things to do than I do. Regardless, I may have to get one of them to camp out with me for some time tommorrow. Sheesh!
On a completly random note, I thought I would recite a funny story from yesterday. My office is a large open area with a bunch of desks hidden from each other by big paper/cloth dividers that remind me of a japanese house. Yesterday I kept hearing a loud tapping sound coming from the direction of the window. I suspected that it might be hail or something. It was random but relatively steady. Well after a while it went away and I didn't think much of it again. However, a short time later it came back. Now I was curious, so I start paying more attention to it. I finally concluded that it was one of the other people in the office banging away (quite loudly) on his keyboard. Hmm... I wonder if he would take offense if I recommended a "quiet" keyboard.
5:34 PM Posted by Big Dave
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It's a little late, but someone might get a kick out of it anyway.
50 Fun Things for Professors To Do The First Day of Class
7:39 AM Posted by Big Dave
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Monday, September 16, 2002
You know my mind whirls when I think of what all has taken place in the span of one week.
I started today with my new job. I decided to accept a Java development position working with
EJBs on
WebSphere with a
DB2 back-end. The position is with
Benefit Harbor. It is a very small group of about 20 people. They are a joint venture of
Skywire Technology (who happen to share the office at the moment) and
Summit Alliance. Benefit Harbor serves as an
ASP to allow companies to enable their employees so that they can enroll in their chosen benefit packages through the internet. It is intended to save the company time and money while opening the door to new benefit possibilities. I'm going to be working on the enrollment piece by coding the logic for new benefit packages. Everyone with me here? Don't worry, I'm pretty lost too. It's a lot to learn, but I am looking forward to the challenge.
I sat down last Friday with my new boss and he started going through the code. I don't usually get lost, but I was totally confused within 30 minutes. I foresee a very steep learning curve in my future. Hmm... Climbing helmet, Check! Harness, Check! Ropes, Check!
Belay ON!
7:08 PM Posted by Big Dave
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Saturday, September 14, 2002
Being sick stinks. Especially when it ruins your plans for the weekend.
1:07 PM Posted by Big Dave
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Wednesday, September 11, 2002
In memory of the victims of 9-11-01
8:23 AM Posted by Big Dave
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Tuesday, September 10, 2002
I had to go exploring tonight... I found this shirt on ComputerGear.com. I think it's great. In case you can't read it, it says "To be or Not to be, that is the question"
9:16 PM Posted by Big Dave
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I have had an absolutely spectacular day. I had my interview this morning. By 5:00 I had been extended two offers. Now comes the decision time. I'm thrilled about both. I would love to accept both, but now I have to choose. I intend to gather all the data and make my decision by the end of the week. Please keep me in your prayers.
On a completely seperate note... I receive a weekly report on the searches that are run on this site. One of them this last week struck me as really funny; "I hate every bone in your body" With that much love, who needs a fan club.
5:29 PM Posted by Big Dave
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Nate called this afternoon to see if I would be interested in going to the Rangers game this evening. Of course I said yes, but that set into motion a hectic set of events. Julian was over helping me copy some files and I needed to finish that. I got a call from a recruiter who wanted to set up a phone interview after 5:00, but that was when Nate was supposed to pick me up, so we moved it up a little bit. The hiring manager called and we got to chat for a bit. He asked me about my Java knowledge and then started asking me some very difficult questions. I had to calm down and take a few breathes since I was thinking much faster than I could talk. I apparently did satisfactorily because the recruiter called back later and asked to set up an interview.
Now tomorrow I get to dress up, try to dazzle a couple of people, and then I'll go meet cousin Elizabeth for lunch. She also has an interview tomorrow; two actually. So wish both of us luck.
12:35 AM Posted by Big Dave
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Sunday, September 08, 2002
Hmmm... I finally got on this afternoon and had this email in my inbox:
You have been chosen as next week's (09-08-2002) "Geek of the Week". Please visit the
Geek of the Week Homepage.
I'm not sure wether to be ashamed or proud. It's me none the less. Yay ME!!!
2:50 PM Posted by Big Dave
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Saturday, September 07, 2002
Dancing was fun last night. We went out to dinner and then headed over to Red River. Lisa ended up with a stomach ache so we left a little early, but we had a good time.
Today was a pretty lazy day. I did watch the Aggies beat Pittsburgh in a very close game. 14-12
10:55 PM Posted by Big Dave
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Thursday, September 05, 2002
I have quickly become inundated with requests for my time. It's a very nice feeling. I have a couple of interviews scheduled for next week and hope for two more to present themselves. Maybe I'm getting greedy, I don't know. But it's very nice to be popular.
In the mean time I'm working on getting a couple of new clients for web development projects. I'm definitely doing the best I can to keep out of trouble.
And tomorrow night.... I get to go boot scootin'. I haven't decided where we should go yet. I'm debating between
Billy Bob's and
Cowboy's Red River.
Arghhh!!! It's not fair. I just noticed that the
Bellamy Brothers will be playing at
Billy Bob's Saturday night. Hmmm... maybe dancing both nights. Interesting.
1:55 PM Posted by Big Dave
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Tuesday, September 03, 2002
Hmm... what has happened since last Friday. Sunday was Smokefest at Lake Lewisville. I met a lot of people, ate some really great food, and got to be judge for the brisket part of the competition. My only complaint was that it was awfully warm, but it cooled down when the sun went down. Unfortunately that's about the time we were leaving. Omar and the Howlers were great.
Last night I participated in a
ukulele sing-a-long. I really didn't know what I was getting into, but it was fun. I kept trying to play but my fingers wouldn't go where they were supposed to go quick enough. We left with a moving serenade of Bicycle for Two sung by a clucking chorus. Did I mention that this all took place in the coffee shop of a Half-Priced Bookstore? We got some interesting looks.
12:41 PM Posted by Big Dave
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