Some Catching Up!

I had intended to post this on October 16th which is a significant date for me.  However that date was beyond nightmarish.  Lets Cover what happened that day first. 

I went out and looked at a claim.  While there I received a text asking me to call the office when I could.  About 15 minutes later I received a frantic call from our claims manager that our phones were down as well as our internet. WONDERFUL!! I take her through a number of things to try and come to the conclusion that our firewall (manages all internet and telephone traffic) has failed.  Just the week prior my IT guy and I had determined that the firewall was the cause of some other internal issues and I had decided to replace it....I guess I wasn't fast enough.

On the way back to the office I stop at Fry's Electronics.  Its not likely they will have what I need, but if any retail store would they would.  I get out and head inside.  I remember stopping to lock my truck (I was also on the phone) but I don't recall hearing it lock.

I was inside about 30 minutes and finally found something I thought MIGHT work. I made the purchase and left and rushed straight to the office.  It is now past 2 PM and I have not had anything to eat since 7:30.  I get out and immediately start working to get everything up and running.  Within about 15 minutes I realized I need some data off my laptop.  I head back to the truck and open the back door........IT'S NOT THERE!!! I go back inside and ask if anyone saw me bring my back in.....nope.  I text Z and ask if I left it at home.  Although I am confident it was in my truck when I left my claim I felt I should double check.  Of course it was not at home.

This only means it was stolen while at Fry's.  I called them and their security claims in never had my truck in their cameras.  It was of course sitting middle of the parking lot 3/4 way out how it would NOT be in their cameras is my question.  My life was in that bag.  Here are just a few items:

Work Backpack

Dell Laptop

250 GB back drive (taking it back to the office that day)

Passport (should not have been in there)

Various media components/cables (Ethernet, mini usb, etc). 

The amazing this was they missed my camera bag right underneath my work bag which had my Sony HD video camera.  I of course reported it to the police  and filed and insurance claim.  However the loss of your "work life" is such a pain.  I had back up things twice (beyond the backup drive in the bag).  However my most recent back was from July.  A lot of data was also on our file server but some things were and they are gone.  The cost of working without the proper equipment and the time to restore data is also mind numbing.

To top all this off......remember why I stopped at Fry's..... what I purchased did not fix the issue!  If I had gone with my gut that even Fry's would not have the firewall needed I would have avoided a lot of issues.  I am grateful to our fiber provider who called a "buddy" who had a spare firewall and let us borrow it for about three weeks.  That  got us up late that Friday and going since.

What a fiasco.  Tomorrow I plan on writing about the topic my October 16th blog was supposed to be.  October 16th was an anniversary for me.  Anniversary of the day I almost died.  My best friend who was with me that day has been on my mind a lot and I is the reason I wanted to blog about it.  Tue in tomorrow for what happened that day along with photos of the carnage.  From there on I hope to post every day or two.

The Presidential Campaign Heats Up.....

Well I am going to give this a try with a few links and maybe a photo this time. We will see how it goes so bear with me.

Ok here is where you think I am going to go off about which candidate is the best and why. WRONG! This blog is about the system we have in place and whats wrong with it.

First of all we do not live in a true democracy. We live in a democratic republic. Your vote for the the president does not count! For those of you that need refresher on our Electoral College you can click on the link to it. The wikipedia article i linked to raises a lot of questions.

In fact this season an episode of Boston Legal tacked a similar question taken down to the leval of the acutal parties. In the episode Shirley Schmidt's (Candice Bergen) nephew is a super delegate to the DNC. He outwardly states that he will not vote for the candidate those in his district vote for. Alan Shore (James Spader) tries the case against the DNC. (Sidebar: I just LOVE how neurotic Alan Shore is....) In the end the the DNC wins becasue as a private organization they can do whatever they want. The Republicans are the exact same way. This is perfect proof of how messed up the system is and this episode was only dealing with the candidates within a single party not the election as a whole.

So now your vote for a candidate in a party or for the president just does not matter. They can still do what they want. It is sad how many people will waste their time to go to the polls just so the media can hype who is winning the popular vote...and none of it matters! If we truly lived in a democracy your vote would elect the president. Further we would vote on all issues and a majority would rule. Instead we elect people to speak for us in the Senate and House. How many of them actually do what your will really is?.......honestly now??

Our system is truly flawed. In a House Commons speech on November 11, 1947 Winston Churchill said : "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." That is really how I feel at this moment. There is not another form of government I would want to live under (ie, no China, North Korea, etc) but I do not want to be in this one either.

The worst part about the system being flawed is the fact the ones that are in place to change it won't. Why not...becasue they would no longer have jobs and make the money they are. In 1887 Lord Action of Britain said "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." AMEN to that. Those in power to change will not do it and this quote sumes up why!

In the end I am brought to an old movie I love. It is Brewsters Millions. In the movie he is a minor league baseball player. Unknown to him, he had a (recently deceased) rich relative. In order to test if Brewster knows the value of money, he is given the task of disposing of $30m in 30 days. Brewster isn't allowed to have any assets to show for the $30m or waste the money in any way. If successful, Brewster gets to inherit $300m. The biggest problem of all however, is that Brewster can't tell anyone what he's doing, so everyone thinks he's crazy. Add to this the fact that if he fails, two scheming trustees will get their hands on the money.

In the end to go through the money he enters the mayoral election for the city of Chicago. The other two men running are sleazy scumbags. But Monty doesn't want to win, just campaign to spend the millions (really some satire on campaign spending as well). He ends up with the best campaign slogan even : VOTE NONE OF THE ABOVE! What a refreshing slogan. If all candidates could be this honest we would be so much better off.

Yes vote none of the above is how I feel about our elections this year and most years in fact. Our candidates try to make themselves appeal to the common American. Tell me the last presidential candidate that was not a millionaire?

I read today where both parties have raised in excess of $500 MILLION! All for a job that pays $400k. No come on which of you cannot find something wrong with this picture. In fact I am sure all of you could think of much better uses than this.

Well I guess I am done with my soapbox for a while. I hope you enjoyed the post today. I will try to make it a more regular thing.

Times Goes By...

Time continues to go by and of course we all know there is nothing we can do about it. i turned 31 today. Usually people "freak out" or have problems on what are deemed to be milestone years like 30, 40, etc. Last year turning 30 I don't think I had much issue. Z seems to think it bothered me some but I didn't seem to notice.

This year is different and it didn't hit me until today. It really is bothering me. Nothing has technically been bad, but I certainly do feel good. My stomach is in knots and I can't sleep. My heart beat is elevated for no particular reason and my stress level is higher than normal. Really I just wish there was an answer to what it really is.

I know that today I realized how much more loyal my regular employees are in than ones who are relatives. That is a very sad statement but very true. I think that will cause a parting of ways but honestly its a good thing! The worst part is I recently had to let a great workmate and friend go who has been loyal and worked their backside off for me. To have to do that and then be hung out to dry by family...well it brings sorrow.

In the end it goes back to being happy. I have always loved insurance and most days it is truly a challenge.....and a challenge is what I need. Mundane just makes me bored. So how do you make yourself happy in your work. Well you surround yourself by great people who enjoy what they do and all working as a team. Well all those spices are in place maybe they just need to be mixed up again.

That's enough for tonight. I am determined to be better at getting things out there.

The Americanization of Cancun Sucks....

As you may or may not know by now Z and I went to Cancun for a four day weekend. It started out with an 1.5 hour delay on the ground in Houston due to an mechanic issue on the plane. The entire reason we choose Cancun was to maximize our “beach time” since Continental has more flights there and we could leave earlier. The flight itself was fine.

We then get to Cancun (late obviously) and head outside to find our pre scheduled ride. We wonder around for a few minutes to no avail. At this point Z is quite irate at me. I found an AMEX representative and they in the end helped me find the proper person to get us to Le Meridien. With a fifteen minute drive we arrive at the hotel. It is a pretty property, but rather small in comparison to the others. At this point Z just wants to lay down and take a nap and doesn’t feel good. Of course our room is not ready! (are they ever when they are supposed to be). So we go eat in the restaurant which has no A/C and is about 85 degrees. They also were going to put us in a room with no balcony and two double beds. However they offered to move us to this other resort for the night and then back to Le Meriden with private transportation. After some talk we agreed. We would get to see another property and a king in both places. We also decided that if it appeared to be a dump we would not even get out of the vehicle.

Off we go to a resort named Aqua. Well when we get there it is immediately obvious that this resort is nicer than Le Meriden (as evidenced by the two Rolls Royce Phantoms outside they use to drive guests around). This property is absolutely gorgeous. It is concrete, steel, and glass with a very Asian theme to it. I took a bunch of photos of it and will post them. We received a nice room near the top in the center of the hotel. Z collapsed and slept and I went for a run on the beach and a swim. Then I read until dark. That evening we actually had a very nice dinner…....at a mall that makes the Galleria in Houston look cheap and old (Cartier, Luis Vuitton, etc.) This is just not the Mexican culture I was looking for.

We go back to Le Meridien the next day and it is ok. The property is small and cramped. The pools are ok. I will now take a moment to go off one poolside etiquette. Due to the size of the property the seats around the pool will fill up quickly. HOWEVER…running down there at 8.30 in the morning to throw a towel on two chairs and then not returning till the afternoon is NOT reserving a chair! These childish games drive me nuts. If you want to use the chair go sit your happy but in it….not throw a towel on it to “save your place” for the next five hours while the rest of us wander around looking for somewhere to sit. So when you come down and find me “in your chair” tough luck! On top of this poolside service was very poor. We would usually have to wait 30 + minutes to order a drink and on average it took 25minutes to get it back. They ask for your name and room number up front so they know where to charge. They will disappear and you won’t see them for huge amounts of time. YET, the moment you get up to leave without signing they will run your ass down. Yes they need that tip for the drink it took them 55 minutes total to get to you. Last I checked that was not top notch service. I looked at the guy when this happened and said you have the room number just charge the room….and he looked at me like he didn’t know what to do.

I am so-so on the all inclusive thing. It is nice mainly for the meals. Yet doing it for the alcohol is just a waste. I guess I am too picky but when I have done all inclusive before all you get is CRAP liquor. Maybe I am just an alcohol snob. I don’t want vodka or whiskey I have never heard of.

On Sunday we decided to go snorkeling and it was fine. I LOVE the water so just being in it makes me happy. We saw some fish and I saw two turtles. However I think a lot of the coral in this area is still trying to redevelop from the Hurricanes in 2005. On the way back from snorkeling we stopped at a Chinese restaurant. It was the best food and most reasonably priced we had the entire time there.

That evening we decided to go to Coco Bongo. It was recommended to us. So we took a taxi down there and got some Starbucks (ok ok the one good Americanized thing there), and walked around and talked. We found out that the show didn’t start till 10:30 pm. Swimming had drained us both so we decided to skip it. We walked around the shops. We walked into a cigar shop and they average $22/a piece. I have seen the same ones here for $6.50. We finally decided to get some Jack Daniels go back to Le Meriden and have a couple of drinks and just relax. We went into a store and found a 1/5 of Jack for $55.00!! I quickly decided I did not need a drink that badly.

We adjourned for the night and slept hard because of swimming so much (the current was strong in one area and wiped us both out). It was the first decent sleep I had the pillows were quite poor.

On Monday we went back to the pool and read for a bit before leaving. We departed for the airport and breezed thru check-in and went to security. The line was short and we breezed by. Interestingly we did not remove our shoes. This is now the 2^nd country I have been in that I have not had to removed my shoes. However the real brilliance of Cancun showed past security. Once you get past you MUST go thru the 25,000 square foot duty free store. So for grins I had to go find the Jack Daniels……the same 1/5 was now $22.00!! I was furious.

In the end I could have gone to Florida or a number of other places here in the US for less money and better service. I don’t go to another country to experience my own culture! I cannot understand why you go to another country just to have it feel “like home”. Are Americans so narrow minded that need that to be comfortable. How about trying out something new and different.

When we travel we strive NOT to eat at any restaurant that is a chain. Give me the West Coast of Mexico ANY DAY. It cost 30% less, the people are nicer, more laid back and you get a true feel for the Mexican culture (that I love).

Not to make it all that horrible here are a few things which was good.

Aqua resort was gorgeous!

I love to read and read 1.5 books (Ludlum novels, not light reads).

I got to swim everyday and wish I could do that at home.

That’s about it for the positives. I lot more occurred (on the negative side) but that is enough for now.

A Little About Life & Some About My Wife

Well it has been a while and I have had a number of topics to write about but just haven't taken the time to sit down and JUST DO IT!

As young people most of us aspire to have "money" and be well off. Yet we all have to learn the hard way there is no such thing as financial security in this world. In addition even if you are fortunate to be financially well off (for today) that in no way will bring you any happiness.

For a number of years now my wonderful wife has worked in an around our company business. In addition for the last three + years she has also had her hands full with our son. She has always been helpful but at her own admission BORED. This is probably because our business is just not that interesting to her and I get that.

For the past couple of years she has been in a self admitted funk about "what to do now". School, work, hobby, etc. and just could not decide. Well recently she finally decided she wanted "a real job" and to do something different. Her passion (and one of mine) is cooking so she applied online at a kitchen specialty store. After a week NO RESPONSE. So she went by the store and they asked her to fill out an application in person. She did that as well. After another week NO RESPONSE. So then she called to follow up and was essentially blown off!

Well there is another store location but it is about an hour away. So on the way to Galveston a couple of weeks ago we went by this other location and she again filled out an application. After about a two minute conversation with the manager she told her it would be a few days but she likely had the job. Sure enough a few days later she got a call and sure enough SHE HAS A NEW JOB!!

She was quite afraid to start a job because of our little boy who is three. He is just now in daycare two days a week. I promised here that I would be there to support her and help with him in any way I could so he could get this job. Well I am officially eating crow. Today was her first day at work and I am over a thousand miles away working! I FEEL LIKE I FAILED HER, and such a heel! She has assured me that it is ok but I don't feel that way. So for that I apologize.

In the end I am SO PROUD OF HER! She found a passion, something she really wanted to do and went after it. It's not about the money (in fact the pay isn't that great). Even after getting rebuffed at the first location she didn't give up. In fact proud is not a strong enough statement. I cannot put into words how I really feel inside. You make me appreciative to be your husband and partner. Now if only I can find my passion.......

Friends......How Do You Make Them.....

First of all let me say I have not played with all the setting enough so I don't have any fancy links to other blogs or website or photos...but give me a little time and I will get it down. Now on to my thoughts for today.....

This is kinda hard for me to talk about but something I need to find a way to express. As a child I was taught not to be biased about anything, especially about people. Unfortunately we live in a society were racism still exists. I have (or have had) friends of all different nationalities. At the same time I will also say there are good and trashy in ever race. Ok enough about that...more to the topic at hand.

Although I was raised not to be biased/racist I was taught to only associate with people who had similar religious beliefs. This was taught as a protection as those people would have similar interested and be more wholesome for association. This means at school and other places I had "friends" in that fact of other kids my age I associated with at school ONLY and for projects. This means any other friend I had outside of there was in the same religion. To make it worse I NEVER had a friend (one I was allowed to have) in the same school with me. It made things a bit lonely.

As I recently turned 30 I have began to realize many things. One of those is that by only have friends of similar religious teachings is also to be biased towards everyone else. Where has this left me? Well it has left me with very few true friends. The ones I did "have" (religious) were just that...fair weather friends who would spend time and pretend they liked you while you "did what you were supposed to". So now I have but only a very few good friends. Ones I ENJOY spending time with, have similar interests etc. One of them is my beautiful wife! Of course I also love spending time with my son. If your family isn't your friend...well you have bigger issues.

However as humans we need more contact that just our immediately family. Time to do other things and pursue different interests (ones they don't necessarily have). So this draws me to the question....HOW DO YOU MAKE NEW FRIENDS?? Truly I am looking for an answer. When you don't have "life long" friends for the reasons described above what is the next step. I will even complicate things further. I own my own business. I do have friends there. One of them even got me blogging (thanks Michael). I do consider Michael a great friend but distance precludes of from doing more things together. One of my other best friends lives in Baton Rouge...again DISTANCE. Finally some employees can only be "friendly" at work because they cannot make a separate between employer/employee relationship and friendship.

Well I have rambled enough and if you have made it this far maybe you can provide me some insight......I could really use it!

Moving Is Such Sweet Sorrow......

Ok ok, I do realize that is not exactly Shakespeare's' quote. This weekend we will be moving our office for the third time in just over three years! The current move is the second in nine months. None of this was really planned this way. Here is a little run down of how we got here.

We were in an older office building and occupying about 1400 SF. We were growing at the time and needed more room. A nicer office as well. That building was older and it showed. We moved into about 2700 SF and everyone sighed a little relief as we all had some privacy and some "room to breathe". We were in this location for 15 months. The last six months we had no hot water in our suite, the bathrooms in the commons needed help, light ballasts needed replacement, and on and on.........

Fortunate for us we found an office to move into. It was a shell and we had to build it out. Our vet (who was moving) needed to rent or sell the property so we agreed to rent the building. We built out about 3500 SF and moved in. FINALLY...somewhere we are wanted and have our own space, no having to share bathrooms with other companies.........Well all this was short lived as well. We quickly had more problems then the last location. Since then the land was foreclosed on and sold which means we no longer have a valid lease and must move again.

I mean come on.....why does this keep happening! So do you wanna guess where we are moving to this weekend? BACK TO THE ORIGINAL 1400SF SPACE! Why?? Becasue it is all we can get on short notice in our area.

Well now that you have the history you can see why I am quickly becoming a pro at moving. Something I really do not want to be a professional at! Further to be fully honest we have hired movers each time. HOWEVER, that doesn't make it difficult. We can still have to box everything up, arrange the order of the move, and put things back in place. Further I just don't trust anyone to handle the electronic. Thus all of the computer equipment I move personally. Sure I could pay for that too but I just do not trust the movers.

As I do not plan to spend all that long as this current location I will again soon be working on my professional mover designation. In all of this I have learned a valuable lesson. If you have not unpacked it since the last move either TRASH IT OR EBAY IT....YOU DO NOT NEED IT ANYMORE. Of course the likely hood of that actually happening.....Well we will see after this weekend. I hope I can do more than learn this lesson but actually apply it.