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November 29, 2005
To answer your question ... Yes, I am bored.
I was sitting here going through some Web work that I really need to get completed when I realized that probably no one but Kyle and I have seen the beta of UCANweb that I've been working on for almost an entire year now. We'll, here it is:
The new (beta) UCANweb.com Web site.
There's other sites that I'm going through ... I guess if any of them are any good, I'll post them as well.
Here's the main sites that I REALLY need to update:
UCANweb.com
Reason: Created ... um ... I think in 2000? It's waaay past time.
Update: I've re-created the beta front page using CSS.
WHAS Crusade
Reason: The Crusade site recently was "hacked", so we had to update the CMS system. It broke all of my custom modifications.
The PC Gurus
Reason: I want to create a backend that a moron can use. Plus, I've never been happy with the re-design of the site since it went up a few months back.
Ed Engelking dot com
Reason: Yeah, well ... I dunno. I just wanna.
Update: I just updated the Style Sheet. Gotta love CSS.
And that doesn't even cover the sites that I want to do for The Solarity Group and its customers.
Bleh.
~out...
Posted by ed at 05:25 PM | Comments (0)
Thanksgiving and other happenings
Well, this year's Thanksgiving has come and gone. Thank goodness for small miracles. Michael purchased a smoked turkey from Scotty's Pink Pig. A serving size for 4-6 people cost roughly $110.00.
Ouch, that had to hurt the pocket book ... but it sure was good.
On another note, this was one of the more pleasant Thanksgiving events that I've participated at Amanda's mom's house. This was our 7th Thanksgiving together, and I've dreaded going almost every year because of the tension between her family. This year, however, it seemed different. Everyone was relaxed and it seemed that a good time was had by all.
Jared gave me an early Xmas present on Thanksgiving as well. The poor boy just can't wait. He loves the holiday season waaaay too much. But, he didn't do too bad on the gift though. He got me a Star Wars watch.
The Star Wars watch collection from Burger King.
I usually don't go for these trinket kind of items that you can purchase from fast-food joints like McDonalds or Burger King, but there's been an appeal for me regarding the Star Wars watches. I hadn't told anyone about my desire to have one; I've just looked at them on the commercial or glanced at the cases on one of my rare trips through BK. But, sure enough, Jared comes up to me on Thanksgiving and says "Here's your Christmas present from me." It was the 10th watch from the left: Obi Wan/Darth Maul. It now sits no more than a few inches away from my keyboard as I type this.
Good going, kiddo. :)
In other news, I've recently been going through my old yearbook trying to remember my old classmates and such. It's roughly 10 months till the 1996 Class Reunion, and I've found that other than the people that I hung around with on a regular basis, knew throughout my schooling (from grade school through high school) or had many classes with while in high school ... I really don't remember that many people. Sure, names sound familiar, but I really couldn't put a name to a face. I find myself going through the yearbook going ... "Oh yeah, that's who that was".
What's really surprising to me is something that I realized just recently. A lot of people that I went to school with aren't in the yearbook at all. I was going over the class list located at the FCHS 1996 Class Reunion site and noticed that I was seeing names that I remembered, but didn't recall seeing in the yearbook. So, I pulled out the yearbook and sure enough ... there's quite a few people missing. It's made me wonder why that is. Did they not get their pictures in on time? Did someone forget to add them to the yearbook? Was it just a huge oversight on someone's part?
There are only two things that I made sure of when it came to my senior year:
1. I got my graduation stuff (cap and stuff).
2. I got my pictures taken and submitted to the yearbook.
All of this, coming from someone who really didn't care much about his senior year of high school. I was more worried about making a future for myself ... doing well in my classes, working hard @ Cable 10 and trying to make a name for myself @ Microsoft. But I made the time to make sure that those two things were taken care of regardless of what else I was doing. I'm just curious as to what the people who didn't get their pictures included were doing. What kept them from taking the time out to get a picture taken and given to the yearbook staff?
Oh well, I guess it's pointless to wonder. That was almost 10 years ago now. Geez ...
While I'm on the subject of old classmates and the reunion Web site, something else that I've been thinking about are the people that are labeled as "missing". I know that the committee that's putting the reunion together is actively looking for people. What really surprises me is the number of people that haven't been found. As of right this moment, there are 67 people that the committee can't find nor does anyone know where they are. What's even more surprising is that there are 15 people that are missing that were well known or even popular. It's just hard to believe that no one knows where these people are.
But then again, sometimes some people just don't want to be found ...
Oh, and speaking of FCHS ... man, has it ever changed in 10 years. I need to take some pictures next time I'm in town visiting the folks.
On to more recent topics, I've almost completed my first 60 days with The Solarity Group. The past two months have absolutely flown by, which is a good thing. I can honestly say that I enjoy this job as much, if not more, than when I was at WHAS. Each day finds me facing a new challenge that really makes me use my brain. I've really missed having a challenge while at work, and I can definitely say that Marc and Bud have done a great job getting the ol' creative juices flowing.
Today, for example, I spent the morning on a job site in Frankfort that was literally behind the house where I grew up. I used some utilities to determine what exists in their current IT environment so that I can make recommendations to deliver by the end of the week. What I like about this kind of situation is simple: I can take something that's broken, look at it from several angles and make recommendations on how to fix it. If the customer likes what I have to say, then the real fun begins ... I get to put it all in place and make it happen.
This was the kind of thing that made me really enjoy my job while I was at WHAS. The place was broken when I arrived and I spent 2 years analyzing, upgrading, replacing and re-wiring. By the time I had left, nothing of the old IT department remained with the exception of the existing network and phone wiring that had yet to be replaced by renovation. This is the kind of thing that I get to do now, but instead of just fixing one location and/or company, I get to fix many locations and help out many companies. In a way, WHAS was a training ground of sorts to prepare me for what I'm doing today.
Anyhow, that's all I got for now. Maybe I'll think to update again before Christmas arrives.
Yeah, right.
~out...
Posted by ed at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2005
I'm in Phoenix, AZ.
I know I haven't posted much as of late ... it seems to be a natural thing for me to leave days or months of time between posts. I wish I could motivate myself a bit more to post on a semi-regular basis.
But, I am posting today ... because I'm in Phoenix, Arizona. I came here as part of The Solarity Group to help with a router installation project. This project has been fun, but also exhausting. I've personally been all over the city. Below is a map of the places that either my boss, Marc, or myself have visited since this past Tuesday.
I've been doing some driving since Tuesday ... click for larger image.
This isn't the best image, but it gives you an idea of where Marc and I have had to go since our arrival here in the city. Now, it would be OK if we only had to hit each of these locations just once ... but the truth is that he and I have hit some of these places two or three times each. I've definately put some mileage on my rental car, a 2005 Toyota Carolla. If I have a chance, I'll put a picture of the car up on here.
So, I've been here since Monday. I flew in on Monday evening and arrived in the Phoenix airport around 8PM local time ... or 10PM EDT. The next day I was experiencing a minor amount of jet lag, but was able to get a good day's work. I've been putting in roughly 10 hour days since Tuesday and worked on Saturday (today) doing the same. I get to take a day off tomorrow and will most likely pick back up in the morning.
Originally, I was supposed to be heading back home on Monday, but due to some rather serious issues at the router installation locations, my schedule has been severely set back by at least a day ... if not more. And since no one works on Sunday, I'm sorta kinda stuck here ... twiddling my thumbs waiting for the day to pass. That's sorta OK though, as I think I'll spend the time trying to sleep and make up for an overly busy work week.
I tell you one thing ... Phoenix is a beautiful city and the mountains around the place really are breathtaking. There's only one thing that would make this trip better ... and that's having my Amanda with me. I miss her terribly. I can't wait to get home so I can hug on her for a while.
Update:
As promised, here are some pictures that I've taken while out and about here in the Phoenix and Tuscon area.
I took this in Tuscon while at an Applebee's store. Nice view, huh?.
I thought that this was a nice picture of a sunset behind a mountain.
Phoenix is surrounded by mountains on all sides.
Sunset in the desert ... or close enough anyhow.
~out...
Posted by ed at 12:06 AM | Comments (2)