I’m typing on a bluetooth keyboard which is part of my Zaggmate which I just got to accompany my ipad. So far, I like it quite a bit. It’s easy to use, and while it’ll take a little while for me to get used to the small keys, it works.
Also, I am very used to keyboard commands which might not work on an ipad. Like switching apps? Command+Tab doesn’t really cut it.
Anyhow, just a quick post.
It’s now 2010. In fact, January 3rd. Tomorrow I head back to the daily grind of working at UAS. I found myself nearly in tears at the futility of it, and the desire to be free of the all-to-frequent torture called “employment”.
That aside for the moment, I thought I’d do some quick journaling of the break and of the last year in keeping with the reflection process that I like to maintain.
First of all, the break. We’ve had 10 days off, weekends included from UAS. It’s been nice to have, and fun to stay up until all hours of the day, get an activity or two in away from the house, and then to spend time with Heather nearly the entire time. We had a chance to watch quite a few movies – mostly rentals (Avatar & Sherlock Holmes in the theater, at $10.50/ticket, interestingly.)
New years was good. We went out to a long dinner at the canton house and proceeded through some of the Glenn Bland Success Methods for planning and scoping the future. Heather is excited about any manner of planning, and I go into it with a more stoic mindset, but nonetheless, it was a good experience to talk about what we see for ourselves and our future. I took a few notes, of course, but don’t have my notebook nearby, so I can’t regale you with them now. After dinner, we came back to the house for a bit, and then ended up heading out to West Glacier trail with the Wildes crew. Generally, we spend new years doing some sledding at the Mendenhall Visitor Center area, but this year, there wasn’t any snow for us. Instead, it was remarkably cold, crisp, and had an incredibly bright moon that was casting shadows from anything it could get it’s reflected light around. I took a few pictures from the ice, and then a couple of group shots, and we called it a night.
Christmas was mostly good. I really enjoyed the process of pouring out fun and useful things to Heather. I might have gone a bit over the top in trying to get everything from her list, but of all the ways to have error in the process, that’s a good one. She was very thoughtful to me as well with things like a bike repair stand, an apple wireless access point, books, etc. She was on the receiving end for several books, gloves, socks, a chair (if it ever comes) movies, cooking items, and probably more. We even went above and beyond in designing and sending out a 2010 calendar with my photos for all of our friends and family. An order of 25 goes a long way. I think we only have 3-4 more.
2009 has treated me well. It feels like largely it’s been a blur. I can recall that in April, we got engaged (insert blur effect here) and then in June, married. That whole process was incredible, and a great example of what’s possible to two people when the dream is the driving motivator. We had tons of friends and family, and were able to have an incredible experience of love and connection with each other and our friends.
So, June happened, it was good. Blur some more. In September, Heather and I departed for our first-of-many honeymoon. Juneau to Seattle to San Francisco to (blur more) Memphis. It was absolutely wonderful to spend quality time with Heather and also with the Wildes on the road across the nation. We had some memories made, and some fun had, all with the joy of a 30+ foot RV. I’m still working on the photo album afterwards.
After the honeymoon, things seemed to have blurred by. We have been going to church at the Juneau Christian Center, and further had fun with the McGoey’s in a small group setting aimed towards improving our marriages. Interestingly, we are sparse to connect; I’m not sure if it’s based on mis-matched schedules, or if it’s another mechanism, but for the 3-4 times we’ve met, we’ve been talking about it for most of the year.
A little bit of benchmarking:
Technology in the house:
I’m not really sure what else I might want to note, but at just near 1000 words for this post, I think I’m doing pretty good for a recap. Let’s hope and pray and act as though 2010 will be the best year yet.
-cb
I’ve been pretty good about posting – three days in a row now!Prior to this, I kept up well at my wedding site (http://codyjbennett.com/wedding) as it was fun to share with others the ongoings of the wedding life.
While I may continue several more posts from that experience, I’d also like to get back to the (slightly) more mundane posts here. An ongoing journal shows the experiences of life, and allows the day-to-day blur of life to be more obvious than when posts are separated by 2-3 months.
This morning I awoke at 4 am after going to bed at midnight (or so) and found myself up and getting a snack, going to the bathroom, and laying back down – only to realize that I was actually awake… So I got myself up and finished up the editing the wedding of Brian Thatcher & Julie Patz. Photos are right now exporting to a final state so that I can upload them to my site – it’s a great feeling to be complete and I look forward to sharing them with the couple (as well as Mom who contracted my services).
I still have to create a “Bride’s book” type thing, which will be interesting to see where that goes since there doesn’t seem to be any sort of clear explanation online at other photographers sites describing that product. We’ll see.
For now, I’m simply excited to be done, be another day closer to receiving my macbook pro, and to getting on down the tethered world of web surfing. 🙂
I guess I should probably make sure that I’m ready to roll for work and maybe even go in a bit early to get a mocha on the way! Ta-ta for now!
-cb
Yeah, it’s hard to translate a strong lisp from the Princess Bride into a journal subject line.
Let’s fast forward 8 weeks from the last post: I’m married.
Wait, what?
Yeah, that’s right, I’m married.
The proposal went well, and the engagement was a breeze – literally – it went by fast and all we could feel was the burn of not sleeping and a bit of a wind on our faces. I’m married now which is great, but brings complexities to the tune of not being sure where I stand. I have a ring on my finger, and I feel well prepared to be a husband, but there are still nagging elements to marriage that I’m not sure how to handle.
Take for instance my wife’s desire to be rid of her job, and to have me rid of mine. I don’t like working much, well, mostly the alarm portion of the process, and I don’t like my wife answering to another collection of dictators who don’t take into considerations her specialties and capabilities.
I want to be a Double Eagle Ruby, but that pursuit scares me. I don’t have a track record that suggests I know how to do it, I feel hesitance to run out the door and get it done, but yet, there’s a fire underneath wanting to do everything in my power to provide my wife what it is that she wants and needs. There’s the crutch: am I capable, and am I worthy of success?
Maybe part of my issue is a comparison game to those who have gone before me. I don’t see the Bill Wildes & Brad Wolgamotts to be riddled with self doubt and fear of the unknown, because they’ve already overcome those things. I don’t see those guys afraid to be fearful, and yet having the courage to step out on faith and do it.
Faith is a funny thing. It brought me here, to marriage, with no earthly explanation for my pursuit of it. When it all comes down to it, it feels right to be married to heather. I am at peace with it. I guess I’m focusing too much on the details of going ruby, the plans needed, the clients needed, the downline needed, and not just focusing on how right it feels to move forward in that direction helping others achieve their hopes and dreams. It’s taken me a dozen years to get to this place, and I feel less worthy of acheiving big goals because I wasn’t some hot-shot two-percenter guy. I’m a nobody from Juneau, Alaska just hoping to do some thing right — something bigger than myself.
I want to have the means to bless others. My wife, my self, my family, my friends, my community, my world. I need funds to do it, and I’m not sure I understand the steps it requires for me to acheive it. I make things too complicated. When getting married, I was required to check in with trusted friends (“I’m not crazy, am I?”) and then get to moving on it (“will you marry me?”) to excecuting the party (“when? where? how?”). It was one step at a time, with little sleep, moving furiously towards a goal. I made lists, purchased things, put life on hold, and kept running towards the finish line.
With a double-eagle ruby business, I would have the finances to travel at my whim, treat my wife first class, be retired from our dayjobs if we so choose, drive safer cars, enjoy some of the latest technology, and put massive amounts of money into savings to boot.
I recognize that building an amway business is just a matter of turning the numbers. We develop households into shopping units who purchase consistently, and of those, some will self-identify as business builders with greater dreams and aspirations.
It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed with the process of getting from here to there. In my engagement though, I just held tightly to the feeling of peace in my choice, and the understanding that it would all work itself out by His hand. I guess that’s the case in this instance too. I can sit back and be fearful, or I can press forward in faith. I choose faith, but I’m not sure how. I need a guide to help place my steps in the process. I’m capable of lifting my foot, but not confident in its placement. I need the path.
Here I sit on January 31st, 2009 listening to Bill Hawkins’ Power Wave 5.0. It’s cool that it was delivered with WorldWide’s new Digital Delivery system.
There are some parts that I’m really wary of, but all in all, I think it will be a great tool.
I guess it does audio (of course) as well as video media too! It seems that there will also be some teasers too…
That’s on my list of things to figure out today on my primary computer… 🙂
Yup, today was the first day back of 2009. It was a busy day, and my voice is mostly gone. It makes for an interesting dynamic at the office as I cannot really answer the phone much.
I left early today in hopes of sleeping and resting and relaxing, but really, I had a short nap, and then I was back at the computer, and other miscellaneous items for the evening.
Heather and I are working to figure out which dreamnight to go to now that it’s a last-minute ticket purchasing sort of thing. Unfortunately, with less than two weeks before the last one, we’re dealing with just a few options. Through our winnowing tonight, it looks like I’ll be visiting either Las Vegas or Honolulu. Honolulu sounds more exotic, but with 8+ hours of just flight time to get there (and again on the way back), it seems like a weekend of flying punctuated by a brief dreamnight. I guess we’ll see how it all works out. I’d like to see the speakers in HI, but NV seems like the more prudent decision (faster trip, etc).
Charity & I have continued to email back and forth; we’ll see what kind of information she reveals. At the moment, I feel like I might know a little more about her because of my googling (married before?) But I don’t know if those are topics she’ll share.
Prints came in for the Goldbelt Holiday party… I want to get some doublesided tape to adhere my business card, but then they’ll be ready to deliver. Unfortunately, the 8×10 print was crushed, even though the envelope says “photos, please don’t bend”, but perhaps english directions are a bit too much for our United States Postal Service. I kinda feel like there’s no route for repair either… Sigh. I’ll send a note to SmugMug tomorrow to see what they might recommend.
OH, speaking of photography stuff, I bought the 70-200mm VR 2.8 lens today. I’m not sure when it’ll ship, or precisely what it’ll cost, as it was bought via ebay, but we’ll find out when I get a note from the dude, hopefully tomorrow. 1250 base price, plus shipping, so I think I got it at a relatively good price.
Alright, I’ll go check that one last email chime and then head to bed.
g’nite.
So, I think this tiny little box in my dashboard of wordpress is a place that I can type up a storm and then click to publish without doing much more. That’s pretty cool. I think the downside is that it doesn’t appear to give me categories, only tags. Hmm…
Well, if it weren’t 5:10 in the morning on Christmas day after not sleeping a wink, and being on the computer for entirely too long, I might have just decided to stay up and take a look. As it is, I spent a few hours setting up a Juneau Life presence and now I’m plumb tuckered out. But, for your enjoyment, let’s see how long these links last:
juneaulife.wordpress.com
flickr.com/juneaulife
myspace.com/juneaulife
youtube.com/juneaulife
gmail.com (juneaulife@gmail.com)
yahoo.com (juneaulife)
digg.com (juneaulife)
delicious (juneaulife)
And there might have been some more. I’m not totally sure. 🙂
Alright, off to bed with me!
Well, it feels like it’s been a while since I last posted an entry, so I thought tonight would be a good opportunity to do so. It’s Sunday the 21st, and we’ve got a 2-day week at UAS before a break for the holidays.
Photos.
I hope to use the break to get some significant catch up done with my photos. I’ve got a few outlying projects that would be wonderful to get done with (sophie’s wedding, nick’s graduation, javier’s dancing, and bill’s holiday party). For some reason, I’m thinking there might be more too.
IE8b2.
I guess Internet Explorer has a new version available for download and in the other browser, I’m doing that now. I don’t really care for IE much, but I figured that it might be something to look back upon and realize, “oh, I was 28 years old when that product was out… my how things have changed.” Kinda like the way I recall Netscape Mozilla or whatever those first web browsers were called.
Listening.
Tonight Bill did a great webcast on the premise of listening; it’s so rare that we spend the time to actually listen to what is being said in conversation… it seems there are so many distractions that it’s easiest to just pick up “noise” rather than any real meaning or importance.
Car.
Weather has been quite cold lately, and in these cold snaps, my car just doesn’t like it… Right now, the driver’s side shocks/struts are frozen solid which means that every bump I roll over is not buffered at all… As John Pohl put it, it’s like “tobagganing over washboard on saran wrap.” A very potent picture, indeed.
Bonus Checks.
I’m not sure how this will work out, but bonus checks will hence-forth be handled through direct payment with Amway Global. It’s a good thing insomuch as we won’t have to do as much management of volume and the like, but I’m nervous because there is a stipulation indicating that you MUST have 50pv or more in retail client volume BEFORE you can receive a bonus. That will be a painful realization, but at the same time, a very good (and motivating) one.
Core.
I’ve been away from the bandwagon recently, though today felt good insomuch as I got back on the horse, as it were. I listened to a CD earlier today and also read from The Slight Edge. I realize there is more to be done, but I’m glad for the modest progress. Tomorrow will be a better day yet!
Done.
Okay, so my alarm is set for 6:30 tomorrow, so I figure I might as well get some sleep now while I can. I’m glad I wrote, and hope to be back more regularly to reflect upon my day, and heck, it’ll improve my typing skills too! 🙂
G’nite,
-cb
April 10, 2004
So yeah, it’s Saturday, and here I am listening to some music (Brittany Spears – Toxic) before getting ready to go off to work. I just installed Dreamweaver MX 2004 – so I look forward to working on some projects which I should be able to commence with now that I’ve got it installed.
Ooh, went to get the mail and found that I had a couple movies waiting for me – Bruce Almighty and The Rookie. I’ve seen both before, but I’ve been working on building a personal library, and they’re both ones that I wanted.
I have to get ready to go to work at one so I’ve gotta run. Time for a shower and then off to work! Ooooh… I still need to do taxes yet this year… ick.