Category: Life

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WRAL.com – News – Raleigh City Council To Revisit Changes To Curbside Trash Collection

WRAL.com – News – Raleigh City Council To Revisit Changes To Curbside Trash Collection

I am so glad I don’t live in Raleigh anymore. The City council is sticking by the hours MANDATED that you can put your trash beside the curb or get a ticket (i.e. revenue generator).

Who in the hell do they think they are requiring people to take specific actions within 24-hour intervals of their lives?  Two years ago trash men came and got the trash can out of your back yard. But NOOOO, that’s too much service for the people of Raleigh. So let’s rack up some new taxes, build some bad roads, open some old ones to congest downtown a little more, and build an unnecessary convention center AND GET VOTED OUT OF OFFICE!

Vote them out. The whole city council. They want to leave a legacy of greatness, I say we let them leave in shame. Or they can start telling you when to go to bed, get up, what to have for breakfast, no cars in the driveway past 8 am or get fined….

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My last day with Dillon Supply

I started off my last day at Dillon Supply by going to get a CT Scan at Wake Radiology Consultants. Crohn’s is beating me up again. The barium suspension they gave me for the test sent my stomach into flips for the rest of the morning. I wasn’t okay until my sister brought me some medicine around 2:00. Then I struggled through a shower and went to get the last of my stuff from Dillon.

When I got there they had already disabled my access badge so I went in through the storefront. I had a long conversation with Mike about some recent technical decisions in my last days and how they were handled. All I can say now is that after all this it sounds like they’re getting straightened out.

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Out with the old…

imageFor anyone who wants to reminisce over the old theme, here’s a screen shot. Every day Connor acts more like Amy so she can’t be left out. He’s not just like me, he’s just like us.
And for the big announcement: Monday, February 13th I will start my new position as the Manager of Information Systems at 1-800-Pack-Rat, Inc. Many thanks to Sean, Matt, and others who provided “impeccable” references. You rock. I get a base salary increase, annual performance bonus that’s 10% of base and a flexible spending account.  Amy and I are going to The Bonefish Grill tomorrow night to celebrate.

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Headhunters and Pack Rats

In the past I’ve made it a point not to write about any circumstances surrounding my employment situation. But lately I’ve been getting a lot of calls about new job opportunities. While I’ve only spoken directly to 1-800-Pack-Rat about a hands-on MIS position I’ve also been contacted by Alphanumeric and Matrix resources regarding what I think is the same Network Admin position that sounds interesting. All that I know so far is that it’s with a rapidly expanding company, not unlike Pack Rat, but of course headhunters usually won’t disclose the names of clients they’re recruiting for until an interview’s been scheduled.

So I have some internal reckoning to do. Is it really time to move on from Dillon Supply? I’d certainly like to think it’s worth staying but in reality it seems as though promotional opportunities and foward momentum are not even in the long term future. It’s unfortunate because I was really hoping to stay somewhere more than 2 years for a change.

I’ve always had a habit of thinking about future opportunity. Hard work and good execution should equal advancement in pay and position. Snail’s pace implementations and just getting by from 9 to 5 are not in my persona. There have been a few good technical successes at Dillon and the cleanup effort from the original deployment was monumental. I’ve stopped the bleeding. I will try to keep those points foremost in mind but smart, controlled investment in technology as a future business facilitator does not seem to be of much interest to Dillon right now. Cutting costs does.

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Bret’s Chet.

imageThe other night I learned that Bret Hedican ended up getting himself a sunburst Gibson Chet Atkins SST a while back. Good choice dude. It’s the same guitar Sam Hindmarsh played when we were in Lassiter Mill together a few years ago. [I feel] it’s a solid six string for anyone torn between electric and acoustic. Everyone knows I talk a lot about these guitars but I hate to think I ever acted like I knew what I was talking about. Na, not me.

Chet’s are really smooth electric acoustics. Almost all the best players out there have owned one. Sean Aitken can be caught playing his around town on many a weekend. Check him out if you get a chance (Sean’s got another baby comin’ soon too). And check out Sam’s new band Evenfall also. They’re pretty high energy now. Next show is January 14th at the Brewery.

P.S. – I’ll be posting some of the holiday pictures soon. I just haven’t had much time for new entries lately.

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Christmas! – Round One

imageLast weekend Connor opened his first round of presents for the 2005 holiday season. He sugared up at Grandma Johnson’s and tore into brand new firetrucks, Pez dispensers and noisy little ray guns. I’m starting to see the connection between two year olds and the value of a toy: the louder and more obnoxious, the better.

Amy and I bought quiet toys like wooden train sets and basketball goals. I’m leaving the noisy stuff to the grandparents who are determined to punish us for the years of frustration provided by our kazoos and those crazy tubes we spun over our head that whistled. Remember the Whirly Tube? Oh ya, you or someone you knew had one.

Round two is on Christmas day when Connor will spend about 24 hours opening gifts from every relative on the east coast. Thank ye ol’ blessed playroom.

Tonight I’m going to make Amy watch The Devils Rejects by Rob Zombie to get in the mood for the holidays. Heh, heh, ho….

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Office Space

imageI now work in the 21st century again. Dillon Supply finally got an occupancy permit for the new corporate headquarters and I was one of the first five people to move in. Mostly because I have to ensure network connectivity for everyone else and watch over the installation of the new phone system. My new cube has a lot more space than the cramped wooden desk from 1964 I had in the old building.

I’ve decided not to go back to the old downtown location unless I have to pick up something. On Thursday I’m modifying the core router, moving the branch router into the new location and creating two new sub-interfaces on the company DS3. We’ll also be patching in 96 Cat6 ports and moving an AS400 and a company file server into our new telco/data center. I’m keeping busy. This much activity warrents my absence for at least three days after Christmas when I’ll burn up the last of my vacation time for the year. And oh yes, that’s a genuine HermanMiller Mirra chair. Not an Aeron but also not a knockoff.

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Finally, fall…

imageThe leaves have finally fallen off the trees, it just took until late November. And we were recruited to Nana D’s house for removal duty. It wasn’t so bad but it took a little longer than normal since we had to keep up with Connor and keep him out of the leaves. He had a lot of fun so it wasn’t hard to put up with. I used a leaf blower and a lawn vac to shorten the job.

imageEventually Connor went off to play with my mom’s next door neighbor’s kids, Megan and Charlie. That’s when I got the work done. now I just have to find time to finish my yard between now and Thursday. All of Amy’s family is coming to our house for Thanksgiving. Amy has never done this before. It ought to be interesting.

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Summer in October

imageJust before the first frost hit I made the decision to cut our backyard watermelon free. I really decided to do it because Matt, Lauren, Andrew and Daisy came over to hang out. It could have used another two weeks but if I had left it there it would have killed the melon and any chances of the vine producing anything in the future. It was actually real good and none of the kids had ever had a watermelon straight off the vine.

imageLauren took pictures as I cut it while Connor stood to close to my knife for comfort. Andrew and Connor ate most of it and we gave half of it to Matt and Lauren to take home.

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Safest And Most Dangerous Cities

Following are the safest and most dangerous cities with populations over 75,000, according to Morgan Quitno Press.

Safest Cities:
1. Newton, Mass.
2. Clarkstown, N.Y.
3. Amherst, N.Y.
4. Mission Viejo, Calif.
5. Brick Township, N.J.
6. Troy, Mich.
7. Thousand Oaks, Calif.
8. Round Rock, Texas
9. Lake Forest, Calif.
10. Cary, N.C.

Most Dangerous Cities:
1. Camden, N.J.
2. Detroit
3. St. Louis
4. Flint, Mich.
5. Richmond, Va.
6. Baltimore
7. Atlanta
8. New Orleans
9. Gary, Ind.
10. Birmingham, Ala.

I live down the road from the 10th safest city in America and just last year I wandered around the third most dangerous city alone for two hours, good ‘ol St. Lewy.

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