Friday, December 31, 2010

2010... What an EPIC year!

You know it's hard to come back to this blog and realize how horribly I failed at my last project on here of mentioning all of my friends. I'm not giving up on that project though I do hope to finish it sometime in the new year, =]

For now though I want to honor the passing of 2010. There's been so many EPIC and memorable moments this year that I'm absolutely sad to see it go and yet thrilled to see what's on the horizon. Here's some of my memories from this year, :) (and in no particular order)

The Firsts - These were things that I can say were an absolute first for me this year and interestingly enough Bryan was the catalyst for nearly all of them.

-Went on my first canoeing trip
-Went to Holiday World for the first time
-Got to see Deadmau5 and Kings of Leon live in concert for the first time
-Went to AppleWorks for the first time
-Had "real" sushi for the first time and absolutely in love with it now
-I got to eat seafood outdoors and next to the river in Louisville (and what a beautiful night it was)
-Visited the IKEA and Bass Pro Shop stores for the first time - both of which are remarkable!
-Went to these fine eateries for the first time: Smokey Bones, LaBambas, Santorini's Greek Kitchen, Jockamo Pizza (my new favorite place), The Claddagh, Mama Carollas, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen (Cincy), King Fish (Jeffersonville), Taki, Bonefish Grill, Gigi's Cupcakes, Jersey Mikes, Roscoe's Tacos, English Ivys, Front Page Sports Bar, and like 5 others I can't remember the names of!
-First time I've ever went to a Methodist church (and am actually really enjoying it!)
-I got to see the Bugs Bunny & the Symphony orchestra for the first time
-FINALLY got to see the Video Games Live event thanks to Groupon
-First time I've ever had my birthday party at a Laser Tag arena (or really anyone else's that I've been to)
-I discovered Moscato wine for the first time this year and I am in LOOOOOVE with it!
-I guess I can also say I discovered quite a few new beers this year that I like. The one that left the most impression on me was Obovoid and I need to get up to Carmel to get some.
-This was the first year a TV series based on Zombies aired as well. So props to The Walking Dead and AMC for that smash hit!
-I got to go have drinks at Our Place/Gregs for the first time this year - I wasn't and still am not impressed, but I can say I've been there.
-I saw my first and hopefully last drag show at Talbott Street as well... It was funny and scaaarrrrry!
-I went to my first Christmas Symphony at the University of Indianapolis
-I went to Rascals Fun Zone for the first time 
-Went (and won money) at the Indiana Live Casino
-Walked the downtown Canal for the first time


There's probably quite a bit more things that I can't remember, but it definitely shows how much of an action packed year it's been! I've got the biggest grin on my face just spending time reminiscing about the moments though.

Other memories that really stand out...

The numerous times I went out for drinks with Chris, Jill, Rita, Jon, Matt, Curtis, and other friends and co-workers. I can definitely say I've down more beer this year than in any other years past. I think the memories that truly stand out from that though are all of the nights spent at TGIFridays after work at TechSkills.

All of my trips to Grissom AFB including going out for drinks with Makin and staying out way too damn late.

Dinner with Scott Coryell and his wife up at their home in Peru, IN.

Ambir's now famous line, "That was a mistake in my mouth!" from our Cracker Barrel stop on the way to see Deadmau5.

The joke behind Deadfrog5 as well now that I'm thinking about Ambir and Deadmau5....

The endless joking and constant laughter of working with Matt Pranger, Torran Brown, Classy Cassie, Jon Eaton, Rita Mitchell, Jill Perdue, Ambir Comparato, Lori Phillips, Amanda, my Hooker Kristi, Treg Hopkins, the school teacher who worked in Financial Aid, and everyone else at TechSkills. I especially miss Matt's brutally quick wittiness.

Spending an entire weekend recovering from losing our entire domain controller at TechSkills due to a faulty migration really stands out there in my mind too.

My 30th birthday happened this year and I got to spend it with some of the coolest people I know at Olive Garden for dinner and then playing Laser Tag after that. If you missed the Laser Tag party then you really did miss out on one of the most memorable times of 2010. -- I'd also like to throw in Matt's Mexican song he blasted for us.

All the epic parties at Danny's house.

Gosh... there's just sooo many other things to list as well as people to mention.... but I'm out of time... and so is 2010. It's time to say goodbye to the past and hello to the future. Another 365 days are coming upon us and I truly hope everyone makes 2011 another memorable year. I know I am striving for nothing less for myself.

As for my goals for the year? Here's a quick rundown:

1.) Quitting smoking for good this time. I've fallen off this wagon far too many times and it's time to seriously kick the habit.

2.) Get back into the gym and get myself back into the fit shape that I want to be in.

3.) Start college in February - but more importantly my goal is to carry a 4.0 GPA which I know I'm capable of.

4.) Spend more time with my friends and family that I don't get to see that often. One of my sub-goals for this is to snatch up my brother and make an excursion to Kings Island this year for just the two of us. I also would like to still go on that road-trip with Chris to Florida. I haven't seen the ocean in quite some time.

5.) To be a better person... I know everyone says that but I mean it. I learned last week in church that we as human beings should be more loving towards our fellow human beings. Even if we don't like them, or don't "get" them... we should take a step back, find some common ground, and be more understanding, more caring, and give everyone a chance. My goal is to definitely aim towards that. I want to be more accepting of others and far less critical of those I don't necessarily see eye-to-eye with.

That's it... see you all next year! =]

Saturday, October 09, 2010

THE BIG NEWS!

I am terribly, terribly sorry for those of you who've had to wait over a week for this news...

I am leaving TechSkills on 10/15 and will be starting a new position with Interactive Intelligence!!!

My official title is going to Technical Training Consultant and I'll be building course materials for and teaching classes based on their products to people seeking direct certification and training from the source. This is going to be a pretty huge leap for me and I'm extremely excited to make the change.

I will however miss a lot of the great people I've had the honor of meeting through TechSkills. Employees and students alike and I definitely hope to be able to stay in touch with everyone that chooses to. It's going to be rough leaving after being around here for three + years as a student and as an Instructor. I'm gonna miss you all but it's going to be a great career change for me.

:)

Friday, October 01, 2010

Coming Clean...

[Note: This is a rough draft post and I'm sure you all will find lots of mispellings or missing words. It's the curse of dealing with ADHD. I'll proof-read and fix it later.]

I feel dirty... and not the "haven't showered in a week" kinda dirty either...

Before I get into the details, allow me to do as any good storyteller would do by taking you back to a time preceding the main point of my story, and then drag you through all the boring details leading up to a shocking conclusion. Yeaaaah, I'm gonna make you work for it, =]

The past twelve years or so of my life (from 18 to now) have been challenging, rewarding, interesting, complicated, fantastic, complex, and more importantly... memorable.

I've met some of the greatest people to ever walk this earth and I've unfortunately also met some of the worst. I've experienced some of the greatest high points in my life, and likewise I've had to face a lot of trials and tribulations as well along the way. Boyfriends(*gasp* I'm Gay!), Friends, Family, Co-Workers, Acquaintances, Mentors, etc have come and gone and those that stuck around through it all can definitely consider themselves part of my "Inner Circle". For those people I'm eternally grateful for their dedication, their support, their advice, their friendship, and their undying loyalty and respect.

As with every good person in the world there's equally someone who's out to get you and bring you down their level. While I'm very sad to say I haven't quite found a way to completely remove those people from my life I continue to try to cut them out. We only have one life to live after all and if you're living unhappily because of another human being you're doing it allllll wrong.

But I digress. Part of my problem in life has always been my inability to stop caring about what other people think, their perception of me, or more importantly when to stop catering to others and start worrying about myself. I get so wrapped up in making sure everyone else around me is happy that I lose track of how I truly feel in doing so. This can be especially intense when you're dealing with matters of the heart.

The last time I stood up for myself and told someone how I really feel about the situation ended up with me losing my mother and my entire adopted family. It's been over a year since we spoke and it's beginning to eat me alive. However, we're both too stubborn to apologize, lick our wounds, and move on. For once though I feel that I made the right decision despite my loss because she expected me to cut off my biological family. It was truly a no win situation.

Since then I've taken a very backseat approach to my problems... Hoping my problems will either work themselves out or will fade away if left behind and forgotten. I've generally been the kind of person who hates conflict, I positively loathe it actually... So it shouldn't be shocking to know that when things spiral out of control I tend to let things eat away at me until I finally break. Well things have finally hit a boiling point because I haven't been honest with those around me.

Might I apologize in advance to anyone who feels like they're being wronged by being mentioned here. This is my blog after all and I figured this is the best way for me to communicate my feelings and truly express how I feel. Don't like that forewarning? Then stop reading now.

Ever since things went south (in my mind) with he-who-shall-not-be-named I've been searching for a like-minded soul to spend my life with. I dated and dated and dated some more. Common threads were always found but nothing ever seemed to feel perfect and right. So I spent a good amount of time intentionally staying single and playing the field. The one thing that remained constant was that I felt a distinct closeness to each person I became intimate with but never quite felt like I was in love. The feeling of friendship seemed too strong to want to f**k it up with a relationship assuming things ever went south. As friendships grew in the place of relationships I decided I'd rather keep my intimacy to myself and save it for someone that I was in love with, not infatuated with.

I managed to draw a line, at least in my mind, as to what I wanted in a relationship and what I wanted in a friend. Unfortunately, no one I "had" talked to in the last year struck me as someone I wanted to share the rest of my life with in respect to becoming my boyfriend, lover, partner, or whatever term you want to use. As I mentioned earlier though I tend to have a hard time saying "No"...

When I met Bryan back on May 30th I'm not ashamed to admit it was love at first sight for me. We all know that's called infatuation though so I figured I'd let my feelings simmer for a few weeks and see how I felt then. Those weeks came and went and my feelings for him have and continue to grow and become stronger and stronger by the day. It's a miraculous (and rewarding) feeling when you connect with someone on an intellectual level and not just by the rules of attraction.

Where I got myself into trouble though is while my relationship with him has been blossoming I've neglected to openly tell others what's been going on. What happens in my private life shouldn't be on display so don't take this as a regret for not blasting it out on Facebook. That's not my style anyway. I feel bad because there's been a few people in my life who I've been close to over the last few years and I've left them completely in the dark.

I had an exchange with one of those friends tonight because the pressure to do things with this person was getting far too heavy. I had finally put myself into a corner and the only way out was to reject the advances with malicious responses. This in turn left the person thinking I'm a total a--hole and will probably ruin the chances I have of keeping them around as a friend and compadre.

So whats the moral of this long and overwrought blog? I'm coming clean...

I'm in a relationship, I'm in love... I'm happier than I've been in years and because of professional obligations on both of our parts I can't blast it out on Facebook so I'm doing it here. =]

Weight = Lifted

Of course this IS a blog post, it's like a public diary. I could have posted that last little bit and been done with it but I felt like there's a lot that had to be said. It's online therapy at it's greatest and it truly feels good to have posted about all of this, gotten it all off my chest, and come clean.

Will there be fallout from some people? Maybe, but friends like that are a poison and I'm happier without them. For all of those friends that are happy for me and the rather big change in my life, keep on with that positive mentality because that's why I love you all so much.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Facebook is good for more than networking...

September 16, Help Net Security – (International) Facebook is the top source for malware infections. The use of social networking during working hours is common (77 percent of employees do), and consequently, 33 percent said they have been infected by malware corporate network that has been distributed by these communities, according to Panda Security. Facebook is by far the most popular social media tool among SMBs: Sixty-nine percent of respondents reported that they have active accounts with this site, followed by Twitter (44 percent), YouTube (32 percent) and LinkedIn (23 percent). Facebook was cited as the top culprit for companies that experienced malware infection (71.6 percent) and privacy violations (73.2 percent). YouTube took the second spot for malware infection (41.2 percent), while Twitter contributed to a significant amount of privacy violations (51 percent). For companies suffering financial losses from employee privacy violations, Facebook was again cited as the most common social media site where these losses occurred (62 percent), followed by Twitter (38 percent), YouTube (24 percent) and LinkedIn (11 percent). 

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Web Searchers Beware!

September 14, Help Net Security – (International) Growing dangers of digital music and movies. A growing number of cyber threats are associated with the popularity of online music and videos, according to a McAfee report. Researchers found that adding the word “free” to searches increases the risk of landing on a malicious site. McAfee also revealed that cybercriminals hide malicious content in music and movie-related sites, and even fan clubs sites. In recent years, as consumers have increasingly watched video or downloaded music online, cybercriminals have shifted their attacks to include more dangerous Web sites, malicious ads and video viewing tools. According to comScore, more than 177 million U.S. Internet users watched online video in June, up from 157 million 1 year ago. As downloading of digital content has increased, so have the dangers associated with it. The research found that adding the word “free” to a search for music ringtones resulted in a 300 percent increase in the riskiness of sites returned by major search engines in English. The word “free” in other languages yielded similar results. Searching for “MP3s” added risk to music search results, while searching for “free MP3s” made those searches even riskier. Even when a consumer indicated that they wanted to pay for the MP3 in their search, results still sent them to pirated content. McAfee also discovered thousands of malicious and highly suspicious URLs associated with fan clubs or comments made on social media sites, such as YouTube and Twitter. Source: http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=1463

More Palahniuk, =]

“I admire addicts. In a world where everybody is waiting for some bline, random disaster, or some sudden disease, the addict has the comfort of knowing what will most likely wait for him down the road. He's taken some control over his ultimate fate, and his addiction keeps the cause of death from being a total surprise.”   - Chuck Palahniuk

My Life's Mantra

“Just remember, the same as a spectacular Vogue magazine, remember that no matter how close you follow the jumps: Continued on page whatever. No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn't experience it all. There's that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should've been paying attention. Well, get used to that feeling. That's how your whole life will feel some day. This is all practice. None of this matters. We're just warming up.” - Chuck Palahniuk

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise

Are you in the mood for some new music? I know this is a break from the lengthy ongoing posts I've been working on but I wanted to share something with you all. Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs have a new album that has me positively geeking out.

You can find out more about them at: http://www.raylamontagne.com

There's music samples at: http://www.raylamontagne.com/us/music/god-willin-creek-dont-rise

& here's a video to show you how amazing they are:

Monday, September 13, 2010

Part 2: 30 Years Down, Hopefully Many More To Come!

See below for Part 1: 30 Years Down, Hopefully Many More To Come! This will explain why you've been tagged here in case you weren't sure or missed the original post.

Britt The MadHatter: Had a great with you at IndyParaCon and since then you've provided me with an endless amount of laughs c/o Facebook. =] Hopefully we'll actually get to hang out again at another Paranormal Convention! =]

Bryan Wolfe: You are SUCH a keeper, but you already know that! Seriously, you've made such a huge impact on me over the last three months, but you already know that too... Actually there's not much I can probably say at this point that you wouldn't expect me to say. I love you dearly, you absolutely mean the world to me, and I truly don't think anyone else could ever be as good of a (or a better) match for me to spend my life with. I'd say the end of the song by Tim McGraw, My Next Thirty Years pretty much sums up what I think of you. 

Carla Cochran: We had some great times back in school and I hate the fact that we haven't really hung out since then. Life is just retarded like that, people always fall out of touch with all of their friends once they get out of school and get on with their lives. We'll have to fix that before my next birthday!

Carla Dalton: Oooh Carla, you are easily the funniest chick I know and I always keep an eye on your Wall for all the demotivational hilariousness. Thanks for always bringing the laughs! I know you've got a hundred other qualities to talk about, but seriously, the jokes are never in short supply with you.

Cassie Hadley: Thanks for being one of the best co-workers I've ever had the pleasure of working with Cassie. You and Matt seriously make it worth working at TechSkills. Regardless of whatever drama might be happening you always find a way to bring a smile to my face. Alright, enough with the sappyness. You're pretty cool for a ginger...

Chad Phillips: I haven't seen ya since the IndyGamers days (not counting a chance encounter at Stompfest) but you kicked some major gaming ass as Archangel and sometimes I really miss the days sitting around shooting the shizz with you all at the LANs and whooping some ass in Unreal Tournament. Here's to the good days of gaming!!

Chris Allen: Gat0r! Dude, you're seriously the best friend a guy could ask for. You showed me why football was so awesome, and as funny as it is now, taught me how the game is played. You were there for me at TechSkills as a fellow student, an Instructor, my co-worker, as my fellow network administrator. I'm glad we're able to continue working together with ITlogic and maintaining our friendship as well. We definitely need to do another Deadmau5 show in the future by the way and I'm still down for the Florida roadtrip. The beach is sounding mighty inviting.

Chris Gibson: It's funny when you think of how we met, but regardless of the crazy circumstances behind it I'm glad we became great friends even though both our relationships with that person didn't last. You've been a great friend for the last few years and I definitely hope to see you soon. We're due for a coffee date man!

Chris Ramseyer: Yo Chris! We've been through some crazy adventures over the years too. From IndyGamers to Stompfest to The Adrenaline Vault and RealWorldLabs. You've really came a long way over the years and I truly hope you continue to find a lot of success in the hardware reviewing industry with TweakTown. I truly wish I had more time to get back into it, you'll definitely never have old computer parts!

Still more to come in Part 3!!