Category Archives: Journal

Default – Self reflection etc.

Holy update.

Probably the biggest update i’ll ever write. To assist, a bulleted list of
topics.

  • 1. I am engaged
  • 2. Gamgee count
  • 3. People are idiots – Hurricane Katrina
  • 4. Best dream ever
  • 5. Misc / vacation
  • 1. Well, this week was a pretty monumental week for myself, as i am now
    officially engaged to be married. Instead of boring myself and everyone else
    with ‘how’ i popped the question, i’d like to reflect on the whole situation.
    I’ve been in a relationship for a really long time… By all accounts we’re
    pretty much married already. We live together, pay bills together, etc. Now
    it’s just a more accurate title. I couldn’t really be any happier, even
    though it was unexpectedly difficult to “pop the question”. The actual
    wedding is going to be sometime next summer/fall ish… My bachelor party is
    definitely going to involve knockout matches in some capacity.

    2. I have absolutely stolen the EXACT CODE from vanlandw.com’s
    bauercount to make a much more informative, stimulating, and all around better
    “Gamgeecount”. The spawning of this creation is the creative idea of myself,
    and my brother McManus. Basically, vanbergs and I were disgusted at the fact
    that “Rudy Gamgee” is going to be in season 5 of 24. We view it as almost
    certain demise of the series. vanlandw,
    on the other hand, seems to really like Rudy Gamgee, and is looking forward to
    him joining the cast. Clearly, the brothers McManus were not going to let
    such treacherous comments be tolerated without some consequence. As such, i
    have dedicated “gamgeecount” as a
    site purely dedicated to making fun of vanlandw.

    3. Perhaps the worst natural disaster that this country has ever seen
    has happened, hurricane Katrina. In the wake of this disaster, i genuinely
    think i hate the human race. Love, compassion, heroism; these human traits do
    not hold a candle to the disgusting things that we are capable of doing. I’m
    jumping ahead… This storm was a category 5 hurricane with sustained winds
    of 175 miles an hour. There was a MANDATORY evacuation of the city of New
    Orleans. Obviously, i am do not carry a genius level intellect. But, there
    is no way in absolute fire breathing hell that i would have been in that city
    when hurricane Katrina made landfall. People had all kinds of notice. Why
    would you even consider staying? That’s besides the point, people
    stayed, now they are swimming in the middle of the nation’s largest pond. So,
    then agencies from all walks of life are scrambling to help them get out of
    the city of New Orleans… How do people take to this assistance? They shoot
    at the choppers that are evacuating people, they loot for anything they can
    get, they shoot at doctors and patients being evacuated from hospitals…
    aboslutely the most hanus things i can even comprehend. Sure, not everybody
    is doing that, but the fact that even some of them can do something
    that terrible makes a part of me say “Leave them there, see how they fair
    without help”. … … … Maynard says it better than me.

    4. I recently had a dream that was straight out of 24… Even though
    in my dream i commit a murderous offense, it is set in fiction, so that makes
    it cool. In reality, i do not wish to do anything near what is described in
    this dream. Let me also preface this scripture by saying that “Jack Bauer
    murdered Nina Myers”.

    The dream begins with myself and vanbergs throwing a ‘party’ at our parents
    house in hart michigan. People are swimming, partying in general, a good time
    is had by all. However,
    we soon notice that the villainous mistress, none other than Nina Myers, is at
    our party!! Vanbergs and I keep giving each other looks to say “I cannot
    believe Nina is at our party!!” WE WERE SO ANGRY >:-0

    So, mystically vanbergs and I end up wielding two hand held firearms… We
    proceed to stalk up our stairs, into my old bedroom, where Nina Myers is
    sleeping on a couch. We stand side by side, brothers mcmanus, and proceed to
    discharge our weapons in rapid succession; ultimately replicating Jack Bauers
    actions. We destroyed the greatest villain. We were brothers McManus. I
    woke up with a smile on my face.

    5. Vacation is just about half over for me… Alot of people find
    themselves still worrying about their jobs while they are on vacation, but i
    have a great ability to put it out of my mind. This vacation worked out well,
    as ‘my fiance’ also ended up with this week off because she is changing jobs.
    We went to a zoo, took a daytrip to saugatuck, got engaged, spent some quality
    time together without worrying about working. It has been pretty nice.

    Aside from that, i have been playing Grand theft auto, san andreas. This game
    is by far the best grand theft auto game to come out, and the Xbox version is
    absolutely awesome. It took me forever to get a copy, as it has been
    ultimately banned and pulled from every store’s shelves, but i did get a copy,
    and i am enjoying the game.

    comments

    Photographia.

    I used my combined birthday money to purchase a new video card for my computer. I was running a 64 meg ati radeon, and it was definitely starting to show its age. I got a geforce 6200, which i like… It runs well, etc. etc.

    I just really have a sheer desire for a few different things right now that are all quite expensive. First and fore most, i really want a nice digital camera.. I’m not sure where this desire came from, but it is pretty intense. I originally bought a digital camera “just to have one”. It’s a decent point and shoot, 4 megapix, movie mode, decent pictures overall… As i’ve had the camera, i’ve really started to make a hobby out of taking pictures (although the vast majority never get posted to my gallery).. I just constantly find myself saying “dammit, i wish my camera could do _____”… The blank being various things from “zoom in further” to “take more shots per second” to “real macro mode up close shooting” to “control the shutter speed” to “control the exposure”… you get the picture.(heh, pun). I think this purchase may be one that i actually make a move towards, as I feel it necessary to have a real hobby that does not involve my career choice… (computers and things that directly relate to computers can’t solely be my hobby). Investing in a nice digital camera would allow me to move to another step, so i would actually feel like i’m pursuing a real hobby… perhaps “apiring amateur” would be a good description of what i’d like to be.

    Another reason that i actually think it better to invest in a digital SLR as opposed to a “high end regular digital” is the fact that a Digital SLR would be infinitely scalable. Digital SLR would allow for the addition of upgrade lenses, add on flashes, etc.. (That is, if i were to ever really get serious about doing photography)… Or, i could just stick with the standard lens that comes with the SLR. Erego, the SLR, although a bit more (100-200 more) up front, proves without a doubt to be a better investment, IMO.

    To help speed up this aquirement, i think i am going to sell my gameboy advance SP with all its games, accessories, and case on ebay… eh… maybe not…

    Too long of a story short: I feel like photography as a hobby is really something i’m interested in… but damn that is alot of money to drop… If worst comes to worst, i’ll just wait till i get a year end bonus, as that should be 10% of my annual income, which would be pretty substantial.

    ANGER >:-o

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    ***addendum… let’s play legend of the green dragon!. who’s in?

    Get down.

    Things seem to be moving at quite a rapid pace… It’s almost my birthday, which I hope to celebrate by having all friends/family attend a weekend long outing to Sister lakes michigan. I suppose I will have to make formal invites so that people can make plans… Everyone who knows me, try to get out of work or school on August 13th and August 14th (Saturday and sunday) for this venture.

    A couple new things: Harry Potter 6 is the man. I’m about 150 pages in, and this entire series is just pure genius. Although geared towards younger readers, many aspects completely reach every man. “Neither can live while the other survives”… that is just epic. Every man (well, me at least) feels a desire to have a mortal nemesis. Every man wants a fight… Fight for a woman, fight for pride, fight for whatever, fight for the world. Neo vs Smith, Boondock saints vs Papa Joe, Stu Grimson vs Bob Probert, Harry Potter vs. Voldemort, pure good vs pure evil, the point is gotten. Part of me wants to have such a nemesis, I want to wage man to man war, fight an epic and complete duel, burn everything alive inside, where only one walks away. Obviously I work 9-5, come home, eat dinner, etc. My life is pretty much written as normal circa de Webter’s dictionary. Which is probably why I find this particular series of literature so intriguing. Anway, I encourage turning pages of harry potter books while scrolling left to right and up to down

    Work is busy… continually busier. More things for me to admin and manage keep piling up… Mirrored SAN’s, a Cisco IDS, Routers, digital and IP phones, 30+ servers, etc. etc. etc. Another I.T. guy starts on Aug 1, mostly relieving me of help desk duty. I did have the pleasure(?) of getting a “Blackberry 7510”. It’s a cool device, but im not sure yet if I like being that connected to my job. I suppose I can always turn it off when i get home. And it definitely will make some things more efficient, so there’s some good

    Finally tonight, I have decided 100% on purchasing an Apple Imac desktop computer. I will be purchasing the 20 inch version. I am going to force myself to start a savings account first, before I make this purchase. I’m going to open it awith 250 bones, and get it up to 500 before I swing Mac… But, swing I will.

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    Forgot about my website.

    Briefs:

    Went to Indiana to see a Dave Matthews concert, slight upkeep on site design, saw the hardest rain ever, saw batman begins (on imax), own way too many dress clothes, feel very adult as of late, happy fathers day to mickeyvb, etc etc.

    Detailed:
    Of course it has been some time since I have updated. This really is the norm. Moving on…

    Although I’m really no fan whatsoever of the Dave Matthews band, I went to a concert in Noblesville Indiana. I had bought the tickets as a birthday present for my novia (they are like her favorite band), so pretty much I had to go. I forced myself to go with an open mind, and was pleasantly surprised. I’m not going to go out and buy all the CD’s or anything, but the concert really was quite an experience. There is a complete diversity among the fans of that band that I have never seen before. People from all walks of life drove all kinds of miles just to see this band. Old couples, frat boys, hippies, middle aged men with their buddies, teenie boppers, biker dudes…

    These people have such a love for this band that they were willing to sit in record setting rainfall (i’ve heard it was 3 inches in 1 hour) to see the band. The concert took place at the Verizon Wireless Music center, which has probably 5,000 seats covered by pavillion roof (where I was, but STILL got wet), so there are about 15,200 people on the lawn, just absorbing mother nature at her worst. This storm was ubelievable… It was the remnance of tropical storm “arlene” and it was wind and rain like I really don’t think i have ever seen…

    But I have to say that I’m actually glad it happened that way… The wierd weather situation added a certain energy to the whole concert. Peoples attitude’s changed, the bands play changed. Everybody got into it a little bit more… This post is getting long, so to make a long story short, the Dave Matthews band really gets into their music… The concert goer can’t help but do the same.

    as a P.S. – I’ve lately been trying to think about my life from an outside
    perspective. Where is it at? Where is it going? Where do I want it to be?
    Where do I want it to go? Should I change something? Should I add something?
    Like I said though, I’ve been trying to do that… I’ll have to see if
    it really happens.

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    Narrow it down…

    Obviously i am a “computer guy”. Being said computer guy, I find myself interested in a wide variety of things of/pertaining to computers.

    I like digital photography, digial photography editing, video, video editing, audio, media in general, ripping, encoding, gaming, breaking things, fixing things, linux, windows, macintosh, web mastering, servers, programming, scripting, bash, databases, cmd, etc. etc. etc.

    Here’s where I’m going with this… I know how to do alot of different things. BUT, my skill or ability varies greatly. For example: digital imaging, programming, and web design put me in “amateur” at best. On the other side, I’m pretty good at linux in general, and server admin. I feel like I try to do too much. Getting into so many different aspects of “I.T.” and technical related ventures has left me feeling like I have missed something. I could have focused all my time and efforts into fewer things, learned them well. Learned everything about them. Become an expert.

    At this moment… I’m feeling like a jack of all trades, master of none. “Jack” being a loose term that can also mean “complete noob”.