Results matching “2005”

I like to splurge on something once each year, typically a gadget.

• In 2000 I bought a Toshiba 1605 laptop.  I bought while on leave and took it with me to MCT and MOS training.  That laptop was pretty good at the time with 32MB of RAM that I upgraded to 196MB.  It had an 8GB hard drive running Windows 98.  It also had a built in modem that worked fairly well.


• In 2001  I bought a Sony MVC CD1000 Camera.  I had been working at Pennswoods for quite a while and I had no bills to speak of.  Money was no problem for me.   I also started up my business, signing a 5-year lease on a commercial building.  The next month, 9/11 happened and I was told to prepare for deployment.


• In 2002 I bought a Kyocera QCP 6035 smart phone.  During this year I also took a trip to Washington state for vacation.  This was a good phone.  It sometimes froze on me when I opened the flip, but it generally worked really well. It allowed me to combine my palm pilot and cell phone in one device, and I was all for that.


• In 2003 I upgraded to a Kyocera 7135 smart phone.  This was my favorite phone of all time.  Palm OS, clam-shell design.  What's not to love?  Apparently it can no longer be activated in the US because it does not have a tracking GPS built into it.  I was deployed at the beginning of the year and left the 6035 with my parents.  When I returned, I read reviews on the 7135 and got it within a month of my return.  If I could have this phone now (activated of course), I would still think of it as the better phone even though it lacks bluetooth support.  I have not come across a phone that I felt I would enjoy more (inside or outside my price range).


• In 2004 I was flat broke and bought Ramen noodles.  This was between deployments, between jobs, and I had serious car troubles.  It was a dismal time for me.  I spent each evening at a different house, moving from couch to couch.


• In 2005 I purchased an HP dv1000 laptop.  I tricked it out with a whopping 512MB of ram, 80GB hard drive, and extended battery (lasts 3+ hours).  I should also point out that during the summer of 2005, I was again broke. My business was my sole source of income and not doing as much as I wanted it to. However, everyone else I knew was broke, and we all enjoyed that summer playing pool, eating at Dennys, and taking road trips to Western PA, Eastern Maryland, and Southern Virginia.  I don't know how we afforded any of it.


• In 2006 I purchased a house.  Not exactly a gadget, but I believe it will outlast all of my other gadgets.  Business was doing a lot better for me during this summer.  Up until winter came, things were truly looking up.


• This year, the year of 2007, I purchased a xv6700.  This is a Windows PPC 6700.  It comes with 64MB of ram, has bluetooth, wifi, is evdo capable, and will take mini-SD cards.  It has a touch screen and a slide out keyboard that works really well.  This device is more of a computer than a phone, and in that regard works very well.  The phone side of it leaves a bit to be desired.  There seems to be a slight delay between when you press a key and when it updates the screen, which is a bit distracting when placing a call or entering your pin.  Otherwise, this is an amazing gadget.  The phone portion is vastly improved if you use a bluetooth headset.  Plantronic Voyager 550 is the one I got and unlike those earpieces that you corkscrew into your ear, I barely notice that I'm wearing the headset.  I linked to a video review that I would highly recommend watching even if you're not in the market for such a phone/ppc.  There are reasons I chose a phone that is more of a computer than a phone, and I will go into that next.

As you may have read, I am working for "the man", a big corporate entity in Virginia.  My main business has become a sideline endeavor for the foreseeable future.  I still have customers I support, and I'll still do a lot of the same stuff.  But, I'm not taking calls constantly for the business and not using my phone that much as a phone.  I'm shifting to work I can do remotely such as server administration, scripting, and device configuration.  Most of this can be done via web and email.  With an email/web/ssh capable mobile device, I can even handle some emergency tasks from just about anywhere.
On another note, not splurge related, I have finally been placed on Night One.  This is a wonderful shift that is basically 3-4 (alternating) nights each week.  I will always work Sunday night, Monday Night, and Tuesday night.  Every other week, I will work Wendesday night as well.  The shifts go from 6pm till 6am.  Once I am done at either Tuesday or Wednesday morning, I am off to do my own thing until the following Sunday night.  The long shifts sound horrible, but I much prefer the shorter work week (even though I might go home to do even more work, of a different kind).

Talking with some friends got me thinking about the Summer of 2005. Thinking about that reminded me of a song, which I quickly parodied. There's a lot of inside references here, so don't worry if you can't follow along.

  Summer of '05
I got home by April sixteenth
Deployed for the very last time
Prayed that it would end
It was the summer of 05

Me and some friends were real cool
Had no job but we tried real hard
Jenny quit and Curt got fired
I shoulda known we'd never get bored
Oh when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Ya - Id always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life

Aint no use in complainin
When you got a job to find
Spent my evenins down at the Denny's
And at the Gateway we'd play pool

Riding in Evil John's car
He said that the tree-trimmin was over
Oh and even Chris got tanned
I knew we'd be friends forever
Those were the best days of my life

Back in the summer of 05

Then around winter time
We were no longer jobless
We ended up reassigned
I guess nothin can last forever - forever, no

And now the times are changin
Look at everyone thats up and gone
Sometimes when I play that old pool thing
I wonder if the gang will come along

Riding in Evil John's car
He said that the tree-trimmin was over
Oh and even Chris got tanned
I knew we'd be friends forever
Those were the best days of my life

Back in the summer of 05

Updated: 11/12/2009

Be sure to take a look at my basement junk list!

Some time in the past, I had a long paragraph detailing the difference between what I want and what I need.  That philosophical paragraph got deleted somehow, and I don't see myself re-writing all that.  Basically this is a list of things that I'd like to have.  I originally put this together back in 2005/2006 because people always ask me what I want for Christmas/Birthday/Wednesday.  With this, I could simply either point them to my site or print it out for them.  I would just update this whenever a thought popped into my mind.

I am fairly close to giving up on this list.  I've long ago gotten what I need, and I want less each year.  I'm actually in a state where I want to reduce the number of things I own, reversing the influx of household items.  Some days I want to just go through my basement, set aside any photos/momentos, and toss everything else.  The biggest things stopping me is that I have no place to "toss everything" unless I rent a dumpster.

This Christmas, I don't want anything.  If you feel the need to get me something, I have a few useful oddities listed below and a collection of books wishlisted on Amazon below that.  Otherwise, the gift of money (or a gift card) is always useful.  People that know me know I 'm a goofy guy, so goofy gifts are a safe bet as well.

• Stuff on Amazon.com


• Queen sized "Indulgence Luxury Blanket" (from Robin's list)


• Digital Picture Frame


• Shopping Cart (that I can push to the grocery store and back)


• Stainless Steel Pizza Pan (most common one is Norpro's 16" pan)


• Smallville Season8


• Angel Seasons 1-5


• Buffy Seasons 1-5; 7


• Jeans (34×34) Rustler Carpenter pants (and I bought 2 of the Levi's carpenters that look the same and did not like them)


• socks (white or grey boot socks)


• Board games / card games


• "Ginormous" street map of PA, MD, WV, or VA (for hanging on a wall)


• Indoor "welcome mat/rug"


• Parmesan Cheese (grated)


• Clock for living room (night visible)


• Lockable wall-mounted key holder
  

The times seem so exciting
but what's with all the rhyming?

I met my girlfriend Robin in December
But it feels like we've been together forever.

In March I parted ways with the Marine Corp.
I won't be going to Iraq any more.

I bought my house in May.
It's a nice place to stay.

My parents have been married for 40 years.
We celebrated with crabs, hot dogs, and beers.

The year drew to a close, and so does this saga. I don't have my family's Christmas pictures gathered together yet, but the rest of December's is up for viewing.

Some have asked me about New Year's Resolutions. I rarely make them, because I make resolutions all the time. This year though, I decided to make one, but I've actually started it well before the end of the year. I want to remove those things in my life that seperate me from God (bad habits, ways of thinking, etc). One of the big things that God has laid on my heart in 2005 has been sexual purity. While I may be physically pure, my mind is far from it, and I intend to change that in the here and now. I'd also like committ more time to reading the Bible, studying God's word. Beyond that, I am believing in making my business profitable in the first 3 months of this year. I want to have all of the bills paid and current (not just the important bills), with a surplus in the bank. These are currently my main goals for 2006.

What's been hapenning since the 30th? I ended up going down to a bar in Hopewell after all. John and myself are in dispute about the name. He calls it "Steele's Bar", and everyone I know calls it "Lisa's Bar", but neither of us looked at the sign when we were down there. Anyways, we played pool, ate hot dogs, watched the ball drop, and had a great time. Robin and I are hitting things off quite well. She is proving herself to be a well-rounded, emotionally stable, intelligent individual. She's also a tomboy which is absolutely fantastic (she is however, rumored to pull a Cinderalla act from time to time, which could be interesting as well).

Yesterday and today I managed to catch-up with Adam and hang out a bit, which was good because with both of us being busy recently we haven't really been able to.

And finally, next Friday is Comedy night, I've got friends coming in from as far off as Pittsburgh, and from as close as Everett. Saturday, I want to get some activity together, either watching movies or playing board/card games. It turns out that quite a few of my knuckles are busy on Saturday, but there should be enough of us to have a good time. Contact me if you're interested.

Ok, let's see.. to address an email sent to me, yes I am aware of the spam infection on the guestbook. I have plans to a) block the spam, and b) implement a comment system in the main page. I'm just very lazy about it.

Ok, now for today's events (journal like for now, but then I plan to get more rant-like later in the post.

1. First off, went to Church this morning at 10am. It was decent service, but it was a bit sparse, which surprised me. I thought that the Christmas morning service was going to be fuller than usual, but I thought about and most families don't have a tradition built up of going to Church on Christmas morning, because it's not every year the the 25th of December falls on a Sunday. I'm sure some genius/looser out there has probably figured out a nifty formula to tell me just how often this actually happens (without giving it a moment's thought, I'd say 'every seven years, allowing for fudging with that leap year catastrophe', but I would be wrong).
2. Next up, went to Greg's house to drop off their card, give Alanna (almost definately spelled wrong) a stuffed snake of interesting origins, and to see Samareh Akilah Morse, the newest edition to the Morse clan, born December 8th, 2005.
3. I arrived in Bedford around 2:30pm to visit the Clarke's for their after-Christmas festivities, which basically involved a buffet style brunch and light conversation. There was a mini-crisis going on with one member of the family, but because of privacy and since it wasn't what they would classify as a "big deal", I will shy away from the specifics. Also, I would like to point out that veggie tales have some funny holiday music, even if you are 24 years old.
4. I left there around 3:30 to go to Robin's house (second meeting with Robin, first visit to the house) for her family's xmas dinner. We had a good time and I definately feel quite comfortable with her and her family. I ended up staying till almost midnight having conversation and watching television stuff. We made some indefinate plans for later this week, once we all figure out just what it is we are doing anyways. I do have a prior commitment to visit some friends out. I was going to attempt to make it during the week instead of New Year's weekend. I don't want to make plans to go out to the bar scene this year. I'm pretty well done with the bar scene (now, if you're talking about playing pool, or getting a bite to eat at a bar, that's a different story. But going out to go out and drink is no longer fun for me).

Ok, so while I was composing this entry in my mind, I came up with a quasi-philosphical/psychological question for myself to answer -- I'm not even sure exactly what I'm asking, so this is my way of working it out. Basically, the idea is that if something is immediately recognizable to you, very familiar, can it mean as much as something that you don't recognize, but must learn to understand? That seems a bit vague, so here's some examples.

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• I had the same wallet for about 8 years. The thing was beat up, falling apart, money placed inside it got wrinkled, it didn't hold any of my cards properly, but I really liked it. I decided I would keep it until it became pretty much physically impossible to use it as a wallet anymore. I knew it inside and out, I put up with its problems, and it was a part of me. When I lost it recently, I searched high, I searched low. Even after admitting it lost forever, I still held out hope of finding it again, and eventually I did. However, when given a new, very nice wallet for xmas, I got rid of the old wallet. So while I thought I cared for the old wallet greatly, when something new presented itself, something I am still "adjusting too" in some ways, I moved on. This is a bad example because the fact that the new wallet was a gift made it much more special than something that I had purchased on the spur of the moment 8 years ago.
• I am used to a certain type of gloves -- leather work gloves/shells, and the occasional knitted inserts. I can pretty much interchange between many different sytles of these gloves, so long as they are instantly recognizable to me. You could say that I don't have loyalty to a pair of gloves because I can just as easily move on to another pair that seem close enough. However, if someone were to buy me a pair of nice leather gloves, or some other style outside of what I'm used to, they would most likely just find their way to a box. This is a pretty good example, but not close enough.
• Joseph Grizone (hopefully spelled right) rights a series of books about a man named Joshua living in modern times. Essentially, it is Jesus come again as a simple carpenter, affecting small towns out in the middle of nowhere. In the first book (aptly entitled "Joshua"), Joshua gets hired by two different churches to make a statue. For the first Church, he makes a sculpture of Jesus washing Peter's feet. For the second, he makes a sculpture of Peter standing in full power and authority. The pastors of each church arrive to pick up their statues, coincidentally arriving at the same time. The pastor for the first church, dressed in an expensive suit, immediately goes to the statue of Peter in full power and authority. The other pastor, dressed in a more casual attire, goes to the other statue. They each immediately recognized the message in each statue. They actually had gone to the wrong statue for their church. Joshua told them that if they paid the amount agreed upon for the statue he carved, and then wanted to switch statues, that was up to them. The pastors agreed and did so. A few weeks later, the pastors called each other up. Since their statue had very familiar message to them, it fit in too well in their respective church and conveyed nothing. So they switched the statues back and because the message of the statues weren't quite as familiar, it had more power and presence in the mind of the congregation. This is a counterpoint to the last example.
• Additionally, I want to touch on two different type of people, one I'm familiar with instantly, the other I'm not. I'm talking of what I call "urbanites" and "rural types". I'm not saying either one is better or worse than the other. I'm mostly familiar with the rural types. With rural types, you go in, they don't apologize about the mess (unless they don't know you), and you don't even notice the mess. Your first couple times, you're offered a drink, food, etc... After that, you're offered refreshments when you arrive, but you are more than welcome to the fridge. Mi Casa Es Su Casa. I something think of this as function over form. Urbanites are just as friendly, but the word "proprieties" comes into play more often. During the course of your visit, your well being and status will be checked on often, as well as your desire for refreshments. This is perhaps even more polite than the rural types who might only ask if you want something while they happen to be in the kichen area. Being accustomed to "rural types", I feel out of place when someone who is not necessarily getting something for themselves asks if I want something from the other room. I can simply go fetch for myself and offer to grab something for them (goes back to Mi Casa Es Su Casa) while I'm at it. If I say "yes, I'd like a glass of water" and they get it for me, especially if they're not getting anything for themselves, I feel a bit like a jerk, while they're feeling that they're being a good host(ess) to get this for me in their house. If I say "no", then I would feel ackward getting a drink 5 minutes later. Also, I know all this in my logical brain, but logic often squares off with emotions. Conversely, if an urbanite is visiting me, I offer free reign over my fridge, but I feel the need to act urbanite, lest they think me rude for not offering them something to drink an hour after the first question goes by. Because.. I also know that they're not comfortable going into my fridge, looking through my drawers for a spoon, or peering into my cabinets.
• Finally, it's easy to see that I don't understand these "urbanites" that well, and might feel somewhat out of place among their dwellings. My sister Lisa married an urbanite and adopted the urbanite lifestyle. My friend Kristin comes from an urbanite family, and is fairly urbanite herself, but I have put her in 'rural type' settings and she enjoys herself, making me think that she could potentially convert (but probably won't, especially if she has no reason to). My other friend April is fairly urbanite to my eyes, but seems out of place in 'rural type' environments. So (while I'm not thinking so much about Kristin or April when I ask this, they're just examples), I wonder which type would be a better match for me? Immediately, the rural type is the most familiar, the easiest to start a relationship with, and would be the most straightforward. A relationship with an urbanite takes longer to get accustomed to, would have many ackward starts, and would require a great deal more work to get to the same level you would achieve with the familiar type. Which would mean more to me in the long run though?
• The answer is of course that it all depends on the individual and you can't tell if a relationship is going to work based off a label that you made up. That is the plain and simple truth, but I definately enjoyed pondering the question, and I will ponder it still because my answer doesn't actually directly answer the question.

More pictures are up now.. basically I just grouped all of November's (except the ball) into one album. Umm.. not too much going on, I feel like I've put my life on pause as I try to finish up some projects I've committed myself to. However, I am getting some good stuff accomplished that will help me out down the road, which is good.

Never, ever, let me have a bright yellow plastic slicker again. dorks of the night

So let's see... a lot has happened, but little has been said. First off, moved the website to a different server, one that I have better confidence in (connectivity wise). I have not collected a drop of unemployment, not now, not ever. I am still living in a hole in the wall, still living on sandwiches, pasta, and handouts, but I am living and paying my bills. It has been over 6 months since my last paycheck of any kind (with no savings to speak of). I have been living entirely off of self-employment and that speaks volumes. So for all of you that has been putting up with my constant drone of not having enough money, thank you for being there for me and for bearing it. I am going to stop complaining, stop whining, and deal with it. If I go off track on this resolve, feel free to snap at me, yell at me, hit me, whatever. Remind me that I am where I am because of the choices I made, and I have had more than my share of good fortune fall my way. Of course, I really can't take any credit, God put it all together for me, I just follow His lead.

Ok, so I think I'm evented out for right now. October 22nd was Scott's wedding reception (no pictures), the 28th was a Halloween party in Altoona (still waiting on the pics), the 29th was a Halloween bash in Baltimore (ask for link), the 30th was Emma's party (same statement). During that weekend, I met this chick named April who has reminded me that I haven't even mentioned her on this site yet, but I have a song about her friend Kristin. That being said, the next weekend on the 5th, I celebrated my 230rd birthday (pics) with the aforementioned Kristin. Today is the actual b-day of that celebration.

Friends April and Ali (both met at the Halloween bash) will be coming up tomorrow, and staying to movie night on the 13th. April is coming up to see me, and claims I don't have to come up with activities to entertain her, but Ali on the other hand was somehow conned by April to drive her up here, and I am taking it upon myself to show these two a fun time in the wilds of PA. I will most likely fail, but exhaust myself in the effort (There is nothing to be raising eyebrows about!). Then, the 13th is of course, the great movie night.

Do I get to rest after that? Hopefully. However, the 24th is Thanksgiving, and the 25th is comedy night, and who knows what might happen next? I need a vacation from myself.

Referring back to a rant some time back, I quote "dating is a stupid way to get to know someone". It turns out that is truer than I expected. Discussing this with a collection of people across the globe, I think that "courting" is the way to go. In courting, when you find the one that you're interested in, you do everything with them with a group of friends. You never truly know someone unless you know their friends, family, and how they all interact together. If you're going to committ to someone, you're committing to their life and them to yours, and that is bigger than two people. Some may read this and think I'm talking to/about them, but this isn't aimed at anyone in particular. This is just something I am going to do when I get to that point.

Also, if I've ticked anyone off recently (yes, I'm talking to you), it wasn't my intention to, so I apologize. I'm doing the best I can with my circumstances, and if that's not good enough, then there's not much I can do about that. Maybe it's something I can correct, but if you don't tell me, I can only guess and speculate and come up with ideas that are probably wrong. Maybe I can't correct it, maybe I might choose not to, but you'll never know unless you talk to me about it.

Some other people I know need to grow up and start making promises they can keep, face up to those that they couldn't, and just deal with it.

Ok, now I must go with friends to visit their friends.