So, I figured I’d at least get one post in every month in 2012. That being said… it’s January 31st. I think for a while there I was shunning technology a lot. Crawling into my little hole and trying to ignore electronics for a while seemed like a fitting thing to do with all the workload I was under for so long. It’s been really nice to have the last couple of months be somewhat “normal”, if there is such a thing. I rolled into 2012 with some cool tech toys… upgraded my failing HTC G2 with a nice Samsung Galaxy S2, scored myself a Transformer Prime and I’ve been on a rampage of updating things the last few days on the backend of my servers. Feels good to be back in the saddle again. I may even pick up some lightweight development projects for android along the way if I can keep this up.

So, 2012… a new year and lots of things to do. Fitness, major revamp of that project in order this year. I haven’t gained any weight back but I’ve been in this maintenance mode for all too long. It’s quite pathetic and I need to bust out of the plateau and just finish the job. I only have about 10-15 lbs to go out of my journey, why just settle now? 215 is right around the corner and is taunting me. Still, where I’m at is quite the departure from the 270 I started at. *shudder* Aside from the obvious non-resolution, I’ve decided this year to spend some time getting some things in order in my life… the typical gambit of things… doing more family stuff, finances, future goal setting/planning, etc… etc… I figure I’ll get it all figured out just in time for the 12/21/12 apocalypse… *laughs* whatever. Top on my list of things to do, be a little more focus on who I should be… This blog is probably going to turn into the most bi-polar representation of my psychological state that anyone has ever seen trying to meet that goal. Should be fun from an observers point of view though so stay tuned!

With that… I need to go to bed.

So walking to the bus today I saw a homeless man standing ther with a sign that read, “anything is a blessing” and it made me stop and think…

If someone who has nothing deems anything a blessing, how should someone who, by comparison, has everything view what they have?

Everything is in fact a blessing. No matter how much we feel we lack or what we feel has been taken from us, we should always appreciate those things which we do have. Hard to think like that sometimes through all of our human imperfections, but it’s a solid lesson that can definitely change one’s outlook on life in the bigger picture.

Man, I must be getting old. Lol

Wow…

And that’s all I have to say about that… It’s been a little over 24 hours since completion and I’m still feeling like I just got done. If there was ever a course on the planet that could make you feel every ounce of just how out of shape you could possibly be, this is it. Blistered, burned, bruised, scratched and cramped should about sum it up… Major thanks out to Randy and Nef for dragging me through that last bit… I never would have made it without them. All in all not too shabby… I do have to admit, I skipped a couple obstacles – I had to… Mostly due to pure exhaustion and a throbbing pain in my hand/arm from having it stepped on in the cargo net, but hey… that’s part of the game right? 20/25 obstacles is still OK in my book when you look at the scope of what that course is like. Next year I must best it though.

I do have to say though… I’ve never experienced anything like that before and the training I did to prepare for it was GROSSLY INADEQUATE. There will definitely be MAJOR changes to what I do to prepare for it, should I decide to submit myself to that kind of torture again. Two things on my list… hill running and cold water treatment. Those are the two things I need to focus on because traversing 4200+ vertical feet of Beaver Creek on foot is no joke nor is swimming through sub 40 degree water. I quite honestly thought I was going to collapse from the shock of that alone.

I still don’t think I’ll ever have the guts to do electricity though… That particular obstacle I had no physical reason to skip, that was all a solid wuss move. Electrical current is just something I can’t purposely subject myself to. lol

Props out to anyone who tried that event yesterday, bigger props to anyone who finished and ultimate respect to all those who completed all the obstacles and finished. Amazing.

Ok, I love Science Fiction. It’s fun, it inspires and overall it’s pretty entertaining anyway… But I feel that SyFy has pretty much killed mainstream delivery of any quality science fiction.

Last night I watched the season/series finale of SGU. After watching it, I kinda wish I hadn’t. The ending was a great season finale, but a horrible series finale. It just didn’t fit well and quite honestly was a blatent banner for how horribly mismanaged that company is. Upon reading up on some things this morning and seeing the giant axe driven into the chest of the Stargate Franchise by SyFy I couldn’t help but feel as though SyFy has done nothing but KILL science fiction over the last few years. Don’t get me wrong, some of the shows out there are pretty decent and whatnot, but overall they seem to wipe out the really good and interesting shows in lieu of something less appealing. Looking back specifically at the StarGate franchise, they cut short SG-1 leaving only a DVD movie to finish the series out;  they cut Atlantis, albeit at least with a decent ending but nothing really out there to wrap up the story and then left you hanging out to dry with SGU right when it was finally getting interesting… It wasn’t the best SG series ever, but it was finally gaining some traction in the story line and actually had me intrigued as to what would happen next.

So, I’ve come to a conclusion… I’m done with SyFy… I hope some others of you feel the same way and do what I’m doing. While I enjoy Warehouse 13 and Sanctuary, I’m sick of getting invested in shows that the network just seems to come along and wipe out without any possibility of a solid wrap-up. It happens constantly and they continue to blame the shows when they should be blaming themselves… I’m deleting my DVR schedules and ignoring the pathetic offering SyFy has out there. I’m sure my life will be much better off because of it … Since when did wrestling belong on a channel that was supposed to be dedicated to science fiction? It’s fiction, yes, but there is no science to it. LOL

I took a good long look over the last few years of what SyFy has done and I was just appalled. I remember being able to see some pretty interesting (albeit some even short-lived) shows fill in the gaps during the days that were dedicated to the story theme of science fiction and be ramped up to get into Sci-Fi Fridays with some friends and such… but slowly but surely they’ve replaced those shows with re-runs of semi-reality shows and the removal of good ole b-rated scifi flicks filling in where they lacked content for shows… it reminds me of the loss of MTV to “reality” shows in the 90′s… on a side note to that: it’s disturbing that Beavis and Butthead are being brought back… what will they talk about? the latest episode of 16 and pregnant? *rolls eyes*

While I’m bashing in SyFy, I think it’s fair to say and worth mentioning that I think TV in general has gone down the tubes… looking over most of the shows I used to watch and watch now… I spend FAR less time watching TV now than I did even 5 years ago. I guess that’s a good thing though right?

Ok, so this was on heck of a project, lol. Ordered up the kit from Sam’s Club (thanks to my parents for letting me use their Sam’s card) for about $1400 shipped. We recieved the boxes, all 5 of them (4 plus the slide) about 4 days after ordering, I was pretty amazed. Here’s the outline review of the process. I wish I’d had more time in single days to dedicate to the project, but overall it didn’t take too terribly long. The first couple of days were hard to work on the project as I only had a couple hours after work.

Day 1 (2-3 hours work):
Unpack the boxes, review all the parts, etc.

Amanda, supervising the unpacking of the parts.

The piles growing in the back yard staging area.

That’s a whole lot of parts!

Day 2 (1-2 hours work):
Let the assembly begin!

A good chunk of Day 2 was spent not only getting the framework together but leveling the dang thing. Nothing says awesome like having to dig into the ground in odd places to shave off some land to get the main playhouse level.

Day 3 (3-4 hours work):
Finally, some visual progress!

While I didn’t get quite as far as I had wanted to this day, at least the floor, the picnic table and all the primary supports were in place. The framework was also anchored into the ground at this point.

Day 4 (4-5 hours work):
This was a Saturday. While I’d hoped to get more work in today, it was cold in the morning then a busted cordless drill set me back an hour or so. Had to go get another one from Sears. Bummer.

I was hoping for a little more done today, at least get the slide and the steps up, but alas, it wasn’t in the cards. Kiddos will have to wait til Day 5 and me skipping a few steps to get the slide in so they have something to play on while I finish this thing. lol

Day 5 (4-5 hours work):
Much more progress today!

Coming along nicely, next stop, the roof!

Finally a roof! Assembly of this wasn’t too hard at all. Just more time consuming due to the smaller parts being assembled all over.

A lot got done today visually, but it really wasn’t much more work than Day 4. Still, it was finally coming together and looking like something!

Day 6 (5-6 hours work):
Finally almost there! Major progress visually, despite the fact it only took a few hours to get the monkey bars and the swings operational.

Day 7 (1 hour work): FINISHED!

All in all it wasn’t a bad project. My only complaints were some of the upper portions (where the use of smaller parts is more common) didn’t quite fit correctly. Not much modification was needed but you needed to know how to spot some of upcoming problems of placing a piece in a location that you might have to move it from later. Accuracy of the instructions to the parts, I’d give it a 7 out of 10. Nothing structurally problematic though, just mostly cosmetic. The only major issue I had with this was the lack of enough 3″ lag screws and 3/4″ truss bolts/barrell nuts and lock nuts. Those things were the bane of my existance. Nothing a trip to Home Depot didn’t fix, however.

I most certainly wouldn’t say this thing is sturdy enough for adults to play on, but the kiddos… you could load up about 5-6 on there without a single hint of strain. I for one am glad to be done with it. The last day just bugged me getting the final little pieces finished and all checked out. Can’t complain too much though as it sure beat buying something similar from Backyard Adventures or Rainbow for twice as much. Just an FYI, this set is made by a company called Backyard Liesure Holdings which just so happens to be the same company that creates the following playsets:

- Create-N-Adventure™
- Adventure Playsets™
- Backyard Adventures™
- Leisure Time Products™
- Backyard Builders™
- Politron™

Pretty interesting. So all in all I got the same product (for the most part) as Backyard Adventures for about half the cost, although I had to put in the ~24-25 hours of work. Still worth it in the end to see the kids having a blast playing on it. If you’re looking for an affordable, large scale playset. I can’t say I’d warn you away. Just make sure you take your time, read the instructions and assemble the parts properly.

Now comes the fun part of destroying the old swingset and playhouse… muhaha!

Tough Mudder… for those that know what it is, you know what I’m talkin’ about… For those that don’t? Well, it’s 8-10 miles of obstacles of rock, water, tubes, walls, wood, fire, electricity and yep, you guessed it, mud.

What am I thinking? Honestly, I’m not quite sure, LOL.

I got drafted by Randy to join in this, sure to be, adventure at the end of June…  Am I ready for it? No way what so ever! What does that mean? Yep, you guessed it… intense training. Am I nervous? You bet!

Training starts tomorrow and boy I can’t wait… *face palm* Surely I’d have picked a better day to start than the day after DST begins eh? *rolls eyes* It’s about 18:30 right now and I’m feeling as thought it’s going to be hard to go to sleep tonight… only to turn around have to get up at the equivalent of 2:45 (3:45 DST) to start working out. For the record… I don’t give a rats rear end about the stupid reasons behind DST. It’s dumb, and it kills people. (I’m actually not being dramatic, read: Is Daylight Saving Time bad for your health?) Regardless, I will be up at the crack of dawn sweating to the P90X blues, working during the day and then taking on another interval training in the afternoons before dinner and slipping into a coma due to exhaustion, er going to bed. What better way to lose weight right? I’m actually doing pretty good.

I finally got rid of my “work related weight gain” that I acquired last summer due to insane hours and lack of working out for 3 months and the subsequent 2 months of recovery I needed after. *NOT* doing that again. Only 15lbs from goal weight overall! Of course, after I finish up with this I have no idea what I will weigh… In other news, along the way I’ll be hitting up a couple 10k’s if all goes well. The Bolder Boulder is a must but if I’m training for the Tough Mudder, you can bet I’m going to decimate my time from last year. Last year I came in at 1:14:50. I’m looking for sub one hour this year. While I don’t know for sure if I’ll land in the upper 40′s, I will be breaking the hour barrier and at least be in the mid to upper 50′s. (personal goal setting at it’s finest!)

Here’s to hoping I don’t hit the snooze button tomorrow!!!

So, another year down… another to go.

2010 had some pretty interesting challenges, lessons learned, blah blah the usual nonsense. What does 2011 hold? Who knows at this point. NYE went pretty well… it was a calm one. Just spent it hanging out with Andy and Amanda and the kiddos gorging on food continuously for the entire evening… gotta get in that last night of crazy eating before those weight loss new years resolutions kick in eh? I’ve actually done really well this holiday season, partly due to the fact I’ve been sick most of it. This cold has been such a pain in the rear end but it seems to finally be getting out of my system.

So much I could throw on the list of new years resolutions and goals but at the very least, this year, I’ve got to do the final kill on these few extra pounds lingering… I’m goaling for the first three months of 2011 to get that done… this past summer really screwed me up with that crazy work schedule. I was within my goal weight by 10lbs and ended up gaining 10 back due to working so much. On my list of goals is to run another 2 10k’s this year and get a better time than last year by at least 10 minutes. I think I can do better than that, but we’ll see. I figure if I can drop 20lbs by April and kick training into high gear from the end of March through the end of May, I should be able to tear up the Bolder Boulder this next year.  Eventually I want to work myself up to a half marathon, but I’m not going that crazy this year. That’s just way to ambitious for me with my schedule, lol.

I’ve got the usual various other goals to work on too… you know those personal goals for finances, the ever looming Camaro project that is slowly but surely moving forward, etc… I just want to make some major dents this year. On the plan as well, remove that horrible old swing set from the back yard and build the kiddos a mega-plex to play in for the summer. Should be a fun project but I’m definitely done with that archaic setup we’ve got going on. It should be a pretty interesting year. But for now, I’ve still got 3 solid months left of snowboarding season and that’s got priority.

So in other news… on the tech side of things… I’ve integrated my blogsite with Facebook. Now it’s easier to login to the site using facebook credentials. Anyone with an existing account can login the same way and link their blogsite account to their FB account from their user profile screen. Also new accounts registering can do so using their FB credentials. This is all part of the eventual removal of the traditional registration/login system that has been allowing about 50 spammers a month to sign up using automated methods. Really irritating. More to come on this as I play with more features, etc.

Anyway… enough boring nonsense.

so… after fifteen hours of driving, three days and two nights in provo,utah, one snowboarding trip to park city, one visit with an old friend, a few hours of chaos with kiddos and an android g2 phone later… christmas is over.

This by far was the most expensive trip (in part mostly due to shelling out 5 bones for a new phone) but overall was a good one. It was good to see some of Amanda’s family and get out of town for a few days but I’m still on the fence on whether the several trips through some epic powder was worth 600 bucks or not. Nothing says awesome like doing a cartwheel tumble down a hill so violently that you eject your cell phone from two seperate pockets that were previously secured well with velcro… lol

Anyway, regardless… the kiddos, Amanda and even myself had a pretty good trip. I am however glad to be home… now if I can just kick this stupid cold I will be happy.

Only one thing left to survive… New Year’s.

Merry Christmas to all… (albeit a day late)

-=posted via my t-mobile G2=-

I think if I could go the rest of my life without ever riding a bus driven by this maniac, I would be a happy man.

Seriously, I feel like I’m on a bus in central america swerving all over the road… I think I’m actually a little sea sick…

SO, where to begin?

After going on a serious technology sabbatical, at least from a personal stance, I am back. I think.

After working so much during the summer, I tried to get back into my usual personal technology quests (blogging, mobile modding, gaming, home server/network stuff, etc) but just found that by trying to dive back into my personal time with technology, I came to hate it even more… so I just quit for a couple months. It was actually a pretty nice “break” for me. I still couldn’t avoid it since technology is my career, but not engaging in activities involving it after hours helped to smooth over my jaded feelings towards all things tech.

And… after a few days of “hitting it hard” again, I actually feel pretty good about technology once more. I’ve upgraded the blog site software running on this server, updated the VMWare installations for the hosts, updated the VSA software, rooted my Cliq, loaded a vanilla android installation on it, reloaded all the apps I wanted and pruned out 66 bogus user entries… Oh, with that, if some of you notice that the email coming to your inbox for notifications has switched out mysteriously to another mail account, my apologies. I was playing with a little tool that links up Facebook accounts to WordPress blog accounts and accidentally pulled down the email address you have posted in your Facebook profile. If you want to change it, just log in and update it with another email account.

I’m also pretty stoked about the beginning of my favorite time of year… SNOWBOARDING SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!! *happy sigh* This is my time to relax, my time to destroy myself on the mountain and feel like I really do something recreational besides a routine daily workout. Can ya tell I’m excited? This season should prove interesting since two more members of the family are now geared up and ready for the fun. Arwen got a gear reload this year so she’s all set and Amanda got geared up right at the end of last season so she’s all good to go as well. Hopefully plenty of funny stories and good pics ahead!

With that… updates on the family. Family is doing great… Travis Jr is two now, I can’t believe how big he is. I seem to remember him coming home from the hospital just a few weeks ago, where has the time gone!? Hopefully I’ll get around to updating some recent pictures in the gallery today or perhaps tomorrow. Today will be consumed with cleaning, grocery shopping and a lot of XBOX Kinect. That seems to be our new fun thing to do around here… I think it has something to do with the fact even the kiddos can play it. No controller gaming, a 7 year old girl’s absolute dream, especially when she gets to play with virtual tiger cubs for hours. *rolls eyes* lol. I’m still torn on what my favorite game is. I would have to say independently playing I’m partial to Kinetc Adventures and Dance Central. Group playing I would have to go with Kinect Sports and Dance Central. Those are just really fun “party” games to enjoy with a group of people. Kinectimals is a pretty cool idea, kinda fun for the kiddos and Biggest Loser Workout is a workout, so I can’t count that as a ‘Game’ per se. Between our collection and my buddy Randy, I think we’ve got all the games and reviews covered.  We’ll probably pick up another game or two over the next couple of weeks as these start to lose their “new car smell”.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. Nothing really dramatic going on and life is slowly returning to “normal”, whatever that is. Busy day ahead so I’m going to end this for now…