6.04.2013
8:47pm

I've successfully ignored my personal blog for almost 2 full years. Last post was in July 2011. I suppose it is a not a surprise then that my web site is wholly unchanged, and I am still hosting it with the same company. I regret not posting in that time span, it seems like Facebook and Yammer have taken over as my outlet for status updates. Unfortunately, that means Facebook and Yammer control the content and it's often difficult to look back at posts that are several years old. Facebook has somewhat addressed that with Timeline, but that is still just a sampling of posts from years past.

Around this time in 2011 I was just getting comfortable with my job at Varrow after leaving Aviat Networks in March 2011. Well, now I am getting ready to leave Varrow and will be starting a new job with VCE (or The Virtual Computing Environment Company in long form). I've been having a good time working for Varrow, but I felt it was time for a change and I will get to spend a bit more time working from home instead of traveling from customer to customer. The new job title with VCE is "Escalation Engineer" and I will be working on an 8-person team. One of those team members is Steve Berger, who was my manager at Aviat Networks (Server Operations Manager). He was the person who referred me to the job opening. I was originally going to start next Monday (June 10) but that was pushed back to June 21 so I still have 2 weeks left at Varrow. I'm scheduled to be in South Carolina most of the remaining days.

I am still doing a lot of volunteering with the Conservators' Center. Last weekened we held a big fundraiser called "A Wild Cause" to raise money for an on-site vet clinic. Our goal is to get to $100,000 and I think we have around $60,000 total raised so far which is excellent. I'm glad I don't have to generate receipts any more like I used to do for our charity auctions. Now we have a real functioning gift shop and staff to help with check-out. Instead, I was on stand by to help with any audio-video problems that might arise during the event. We had some PA gear and a big 70 inch LCD TV on loan from Atlas Production Group, run by a guy named Garth that lives in Mebane. Check them out if you are looking for AV or lighting rentals.

Two weekends ago, I traveled with my parents to Philadelphia to visit my sister Brittany, her husband Chris, and their toddler Ben who just turned 1 year old (my nephew). A good time was had by all. We visited the Philadelphia Zoo, and for a metro area zoo it was pretty nice. We also went to the arboretum and enjoyed the sunny spring weather. This coming weekend Thu-Sun I am going to the 2013 FCF Convention in Nashville, TN. Some of my coworkers at Conservators' Center are also attending. I went last year when it was in Cincinnati and there have been some political changes within the organization since then, so it will be interesting to see how this convention works out.

I am putting together a couple aquariums, my first since I moved out of Florida and sold my old tanks. I've got a 20 gallon and a 46 gallon bowfront. Not sure what type of fish I am going to get yet. I am using LEGOs for tank decorations, something different from the usual fake plants. I don't have the patience or green thumb to do a planted tank.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow I am working from home which has been enjoyable. Yesterday after work I went to Southpoint Mall, walked around a bit and checked out the latest Apple iMacs. I kinda want to replace my desktop PC but there's nothing wrong with it as-is. I've had it for a number of years now and it still performs well and nothing has broken. The 2560x1440 screen on the 27 inch iMac is really tempting though. My retina Macbook Pro will have to suffice for now. I had to get the screen replaced on that a couple months ago because it developed some stuck pixels. Will likely get Apple Care on it before the 1 year warranty expires, because the screens run over $650 each. Tonight I vacuumed out the Mazda 3 in preparation for the TN trip. The Ford Ranger got vacuumed and the upholstry was deep cleaned on Sunday. The little portable Bissell spot cleaner I bought worked out well, but is really loud.