So this is the big break up, dear blog. This is where I tell you that it’s not you… it’s me. I just can’t devote the time you deserve anymore. Sure we’ve had some good times. We’ve faced some rough times together too, but ultimately you could do better. The drive space you take up on our shared server could be used by someone who can love and tend their blog like a garden. I’ve never been that good at gardening, and lately I haven’t been that good at blogging. Your 99.999% uptime has been fantastic, but I haven’t really used it. Who knows… maybe the next person that comes along will be a big e-commerce site? Think of the money you’d make just sitting here accepting traffic. Maybe you’ll be selling the next big thing.

Just don’t turn into one of “those sites”. You know the kind… the sort of site that fathers tell their sons not to get mixed up with. You could prostitute yourself out… you’ve certainly got the goods… but don’t do it. Ultimately you’d just end up cast aside in the gutter, infected with viruses and spyware and begging for enough bandwidth for your next high.

No, my precious web site… don’t do that. Find yourself a good companion who’ll love you. Maybe you could do charity work? Raise money to fight hunger or some exotic disease.

Whatever the future holds, oh blog of mine… just remember the good times. I’ll still be around on the net somewhere. Maybe we’ll bump into one another. Don’t be offended if I don’t recognize you. I’m sure your new person will give you a face lift and clean you up, heck they’ll probably put you on a fitness program to get those extra pounds off and you’ll look fabulous. Oh I’m not calling you fat, but let’s be honest we haven’t exactly exercised together and things could use some toning up. It’s my fault really. I’m the one who got you in this shape.

Don’t cry. I can’t stand to see you like this. Honestly, how could you not see this coming? I mean, you know I’ve been running around with those microblogging sites for a while now. I’m just setting you free, you’ll be fine without me. I’m just glad we didn’t have any subdomains together. That would be messy, and honestly who wants to stay together just so we can give our subdomains a normal life only to know that someday they’d mature onto their own Fully Qualified Domain Names and we’d have wasted all those years together.

I’ve tried to protect you, you know. Remember when all those people were putting nasty comments on your posts? I installed the best spam filter that money could buy. I didn’t want you thinking too much about all those people out there selling their wares and linking to sites you can’t tell your mother about. No, I just couldn’t have them treating you that way. I’d never want you to have those problems, but from here you are going to be on your own. You are a big blog now and there are all sorts of automatic protection features available that can keep you safe from all the dark corners of the Internet.

This is goodbye. I’ll check in on you for a few months until my subscription runs out and then you’ll go on without me. It’s really better this way. Don’t feel like you have to do anything else. I’d understand if you never wanted me to browse to you again. I’ll always bookmark you in my heart.

As of late, many public figures have had their adulterous affairs dragged into the public light. David Letterman, Mark Sanford and many more have had to stand in the spotlight and make the embarrassing announcement that they had been unfaithful to their spouses.
Thankfully, none of that is going on at my house… at least not in my marriage.

As you may know, I make my living as a Network Specialist or as most of you would call it: I’m an IT guy. Most of you also know that by it’s nature I use the Microsoft Windows platform almost exclusively in my work and linux in my personal life. Sure, I use Vista at home a lot (don’t laugh) because:
A) It came with the computer. and

B) Some stuff just doesn’t work on Linux, sadly (Something that is changing all the time.

Last night over sushi I made an impulsive decision. I looked my wife right in the eye and said “I’m going across the parking lot and buying an iPod Touch.”
You’re probably saying to yourself “Wait a second… don’t you make fun of people who buy Apple products?”

Yep. I do, and for the most part that’s not going to change. I still contend that their main products (desktops and notebooks) are overpriced. I can do everything I need to do with Windows or Linux for about 1/3 the price of a Mac. I don’t forsee that changing any time soon. Now, as most of my friends will tell you, I actually have another dirty little secret. I think Apple has the better OS when you compare it with Windows.

To be fair, BMW makes a better car than Chevrolet.  The difference is not which one gets me from A-to-B, it’s which one keeps me from filing bankruptcy. Oh, sure… the BMW gets me there more comfortably and with more style but it doesn’t get me there any faster or more effectively.

I’m not going to get any deeper into the Mac/PC debate, but that’s where I am on the issue.

The iPod Touch, though. Now that’s a product I can have an affair with. We spent the bigger part of the day together today. It was nice. I browsed. I updated Facebook and Twitter. I played piano, and even listened to some music. The real addiction, though comes in Podcasts. I’ve heard about podcasts for a while but on my other MP3 player I had to manually download and sync them. It was a hassle. I hate hassles, so I didn’t take advantage of podcasts.
Not now. I’ve been awakened to the wonderful world of the iPod/iTunes combo. Glorious. Got my favorite shows all downloaded and had a great drive to and from work!

I’d love it if they would get all the functionality of iTunes on the Linux platform, but until then I’m going to have my dirty little affair with Apple. Maybe someday I’ll divorce my Windows systems and move on with my life. Things between us haven’t always been great, but it’s comfortable.

With all the stuff going on in my life, it’s tough writing on the blog here like I used to.

For one thing, I can’t/don’t write at work anymore. I know, I know.. I shouldn’t have anyway, but I had much more downtime with 50 users than I do with 1,000 users. Funny how that works. The other thing is that I’m almost “touched out”.  Between Twitter and Facebook, I just feel like i’m so wired in to the grid that I can’t escape it. I want to update them, I like sharing tidbits about my life with folks who probably ignore them and the truth is I enjoy keeping up with other folks this way too (or ignoring them… whatever).

But, over the last week I do have some good things to share!

I have some good news from friends that I can’t disclose, but I’m very excited for them.

My brother was offered a job in Little Rock which he promptly turned down. He decided that I served the time for our family in Arkansas, and I agree.

I had my 6 month review at my job. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been there for 6 months. Some days it feels like more, other days it feels like less, but 6 months doesn’t fit. The great news is that my review went really, really well and I think I’m pretty secure in my job. I’ve still got a ton of stuff to learn, but it’s not insurmountable.

We had Micah’s 2nd birthday party today. It was just family, which was nice. Gave us all a chance to catch up for a few minutes, which given our state of busy-ness, rarely ever happens.

Holy Crap, Micah is 2!

Is it just me, or did yard mowing start early this year in Alabama? Here it is, not even April yet and I’ve already had to mow the grass.

Next weekend I get to travel to Georgia to play a weekend gig with my buddies Matt and Clay (Josh, dude what’s the deal? Don’t you love us anymore?)
I’m going to be entering this into the “Most Twitter-like blog post ever” contest, if such a thing exists.

Sorry folks.  I know I promised I would blog more this year. Please don’t hold the last 3 weeks against me.

Life has been hectic the last couple of weeks and quite honestly I have just unplugged everything in my life that falls on the fringes and replaced it with stuff that:

A) Really relaxes me

and

B) Doesn’t involve computers unless completely necessary

I lost a good friend and mentor a couple of weeks ago. My boss from college and her husband really took care of us when we were students, and her husband is one of my first Elmers (Ham radio term for mentor). He taught me a lot about radio, computers and other stuff, but he taught me even more about life. I can be loud and opinionated, and if you know me that isn’t a shock. If you’ve known me a long time though, you’ll know that I really mellowed a lot in college and that was due in part to Big Sam’s influence. The thing about Sam is that he didn’t talk much, but when he did decide to have some input into a conversation everyone listened.  I’m sure there are exceptions, but I can’t recall Sam ever saying something that he didn’t think all the way through. His example was a great lesson to me about thinking before you speak.

Sam had been ill for a long time. He was diabetic, his kidneys had begun to fail years ago and he had been on dialysis for probably 6 years. Add that to all the other problems that come with being diabetic, and we all knew it was just a matter of time.

We made it back to Florence for the visitation and the funeral, and got to catch up with some old friends. It was good to see everyone and we are all planning to do it again soon under better circumstances.

Fast forward another week and I got a chance to play a conference with Matt and Clay, and the bonus was that the conference was at the church where my Dad is the pastor.

All this week, i’ve been in San Jose California for a Microsoft training class and thankfully today I am back home enjoying a quiet day off.

So, there is the recap. I’m sure this is not the most fascinating post I’ve ever written, but at least I made an update.  Hopefully I can get back on the blogging track now and keep up to date.

I had great ambition for today. I was going to get up and go hunting, maybe kill a big doe… take my wife out for dinner (I may still do that one, if we can find a babysitter), and maybe even clean up the back room which has become a total disaster because of our remodeling project.

Well, that’s not going to happen today, my friends. Not today.

The dogs barked under our window… all… night… long. I think they finally stopped at daylight. Did the suddenly develop a fear of the dark? Was something lurking around the back yard that had them spooked? Not that I could see when I got up at 2am to investigate.

I couldn’t go back to sleep so I browsed around on the internet for a cheap price on a police scanner after I heard sirens pass the house. I don’t really need one, but times like that I’d really like to have an idea why there are sirens blaring down my isolated country road at 2am, and my dogs are barking.

Then I start thinking “I hope there isn’t an escaped convict hiding out on my outbuilding.”

“Nah, that’s not it… can’t be. Must be coyotes or a ‘possum walking through the back yard”

“But that doesn’t explain the sirens”

“SHUT UP!”

Finally got myself back to sleep, and managed to not even crack an eyelid until 10:30. Just a few short years ago, that would have been a victory. Now, I feel like I’ve wasted half a day.

When I got up, Ann was asleep on the sofa and Micah was playing in the floor and watching cartoons. Ann’s not feeling well and I’m just feeling lazy. Looks like i’ll spend another year without taking a deer. This deer hunting fiasco is becoming more pointless than my horrible golf game.

So, that’s it. It’s noon and I haven’t done crap.

Oh Brother Where Art Thou is on TV. I think I’ll watch that. That’s doing something, right?