She’s been with me since the beginning of college in 2002. We’ve looked at websites, listened to music, and checked e-mail together but it looks like her time is now limited.

I am talking about my desktop PC of course…

This morning I flipped on the power and checked some e-mail and realized that the clock on the machine was 20 minutes behind and that the machine would hang every few seconds while doing something. I know she’s on her last leg, and there is probably a few upgrades I could do to make her hang on a little longer, but I use my laptop so much more now that I am not sure it’s worth it.

I am going to start migrating things off of her and backing them up, just in case she decides to go today.

I was in Roanoke, Virginia the last couple of days and arrived back in Dallas yesterday evening (thank you very much US Airways).

It really is a beautiful town, with “mountains” entirely surrounding it. The city itself reminded me of the mining town out of October Sky though it seems to have made a transformation to an urban area.

I stayed at the wonderful Hotel Roanoke which sits in an historic building and is where they hold the Miss Virginia Pageant.

All-in-all it was a good trip, minus the fact that US Airways did not have a single flight that was on time my entire trip and they proceeded to blame ATC for the delays… Yeah, nice try US Airways…

Walking into the dry cleaners yesterday evening, I expected to leave within five minutes with the laundry that I left there that morning. Though it took more like 15 minutes to get my clothes, I had time to observe something that I had never noticed before.

In the cleaners with me were three other men, all mid-20’s to mid-40’s. All three were looking down at their cellphones, texting or reading a text message. I do not know if it was meant to make them look “cooler” as they stood there to pick up their laundry or if it was something to help them avoid awkwardly standing there in silence looking at each other.

Honestly, I think using a cell phone in a public place is rude, period, but that’s just me. I have answered my phone in a store and restaurant before but I usually excuse myself from the table or try to make my conversation as short as possible. Since when did it become socially acceptable to isolate yourself from the people standing next to you by operating your cell phone?

Today marks the 65^th anniversary of the day that will live in infamy.

Take a little time out of your day today and tell a veteran “Thank You”.

I was in Lubbock yesterday speaking to the Texas Tech University chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity for students.

It was a good trip with a lot of questions asked by graduating students about the “real world” and what to expect. Some of the questions I had answers to, others I am still learning myself.

I am pretty tired from getting in super early this morning and will probably crash early tonight… Gotta love traveling.

I will be attending SXSW Interactive this year before heading to Boston for a vacation.

I was going through the panel list and there looks to be some really interesting ones planned. Hopefully I will get to meet a few people that I converse with regularly online (you know who you are) and talk in person.

See y’all in Austin.

I am back in Dallas after a refreshing Thanksgiving with my family in Sugar Land.

There is a lot on my mind regarding a few different issues and I want to wait until I am really back into the groove of work before I address them. Right now I am extremely busy at work (rarity) trying to push out a demo but being forced to use technology I neither understand nor enjoy. So I want to wait until I am under a little less stress to write some of these things out. I may just set some time aside one evening this week just to get everything on paper and try to post from an “outline”.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

Yes, it is true, I have clothes in my closet that I have had since high school. That is not the worst of it, I actually still wear some of these clothes. There are shirts from Structure before it became Express for Men.

I will be honest, I hate shopping. I hate going to the mall, going through stores, hoping to come across something that I sort of like, and then paying a lot of money to make it mine and then watch it shrink in the washing machine. I just hate that.

If something is not comfortable, I will not wear it, no matter how fashionable it is. I have found things that I really like, tried them on and realized it was sort of like wearing a straight jacket while being dropped in a pool.

Today I realized that I need to shop. Badly. Maybe I will go this weekend… nah, I will wear my jeans with holes in them for a little longer.

With the Democratic party now controlling the House and the Senate the one question I have has to do with the people who are adamantly against the war and show it on their website(s).

The next time that a budget increase or policy change occurs involving Iraq, will those folks, the ones with the “Cost of War” and “Death Toll” counters on their websites, remove them? I mean, now that the Democrats are making the decisions does that not mean that they are supporting the cost?

Maybe I am just way off base, but this should be interesting. I’ll take some screenshots of different page featuring the counters soon and then retake screenshots after the policy change.

One of the hardest things that I have had to learn being a consultant is the fact that I am the bad guy in the eyes of the full time employees. When an e-mail from me hits their inbox I can just imagine the looks on their faces, a rolling of the eyes, and a sigh that proves how annoyed they are with me.

I am not trying to be the bad guy. I am trying to do the job that I am being paid for and sometimes it is hard to prove to people that I am not here to steal their job. The truth is, that is the last thing I want. I am simply here to improve process and help install some kind of structure in the programming methodology.

Sometimes that is just too difficult to understand I guess.