An article to cause a daddy to panic

I was out on Digg this morning and found a link to this article. It is something that really scares me. While we are open with our kids about events in life, we haven't yet broached the sex question. I mean my daughter is only 8, but this kind of stuff is really nuts. How can we as citizens of the world break this kind of thinking? I grew up in a small town. I know that there is not a lot of things to do in a small town, however being a Geek growing up in a small town the chances of falling into the "I'm bored, lets go have sex" thing just really don't happen. Every community will have these kinds of problems. What is more alarming is the number of kids who think that it is a new fashion trend to get pregnant. Not only will that child get a crash course in life, but the families involved all suffer in some ways. The new grandparents have to decide weather or not to be supportive both financially and emotionally. The new parent is likely going to be a single parent because young guys are just not going to stick around (not all of them, but it's an instinctive thing to run away from something you fear). It's not the end of the road because a student has a chance to go back to school, but the path to success gets harder. I was a young father at 20 and it wasn't an easy transition. I can't imagine a child at 14 being ready to handle all of the obstacles that are out there.

Father/Son weekend

Today Kel and Morgan left with GC to head to Jacksonville. An early rise and run for them (both out of the house by 6:30 am) and then the boys were alone. We had some early struggles because I still had to put in a full work day. I worked in the living room instead of at my desk today to see if I could be easier to access for Alex. I've been getting up earlier this week, hoping to have more time for myself to get ready but somehow I've ended up working longer days. A confusing day of back and forth with the upgrades that we're planning and I was frazzled big time. Big projects will do that to a person. Add one urgent patch install an hour past quitting time on a Friday afternoon and you have my day today.
Things went better after work was done. Alex and I played card games for a while and then we had dinner. After dinner (no fighting over the food we were having!) we got some snuggle time in on the couch and watched cartoons together. I love it that Alex likes some of the old classics. We watched Tom and Jerry, Spongebob and Scooby Doo. Bedtime was a little harder, as it took him a long time to settle down. We read more Guardians of Ga'Hoole tonight, the stories are just wonderful and they can really keep Alex's attention.
Tonight's Numb3rs is great. They are talking about tracing VOIP calls and using cellphones over VOIP (like Skype). I love this show.

Random Thoughts

Been a heck of a week after a long weekend thus far. Work is gearing up for a major upgrade and test environment issues are keeping us all on edge to see if it gets approved to be installed. Nothing like getting a healthy dose of stress with the day. Stress and empty stomachs make the world spin in funny ways.

I'm trying to change my sleep habits and it has me a bit crabby. Working from home has made my morning routine push the envelope on how long I can stay in bed. I'm not trying to step back at least 30 mins to have a chance to wake up before I have to run things at work in full tilt.

Lighting a candle first thing in the morning helps me focus on being calm and ready to face the challenges of the day. It also produces an amazing amount of heat and can take the chill off my office area nicely.

I found a way to let folks look at my netflix queue, just click the link and it shows the whole queue order even as I change it with a short description of the movies. You'll find it quite eclectic.

It's the weekend

Lucked out this week and ended up with a four day weekend. At first it looked like work was going to take over, but the last minute changes needed a little more time for testing. Kel was nice to me and let me sleep in until after 10, then I took it easy to get going. We were lucky enough to get the van back on the road today, it needed a new oil pan gasket. Because this van is designed so well (NOT) a simple replacement cost me an extra $338 in labor. We tried a new garage that was actually recommended by the Goodwrench guys as a reputable local repair shop. I am thankful that they would be willing to save me $20/hr to go with our new place. They were up front and very nice about what we needed to get done, explaining the issue about changing the gasket.
Tried a new Chinese buffet in town which was better than the first place we've tried but not spectacular. How I miss the numerous choices we had in Tampa for good places to go eat.
We took advantage of another healthy competition between Blockbuster Video and Netflix, getting free rentals in the store for the address labels on the Netflix envelopes. It's a limited promotion that doesn't get a lot of publicity, but for each label, you get a free rental. We were able to get a couple of free envelopes and they were very happy to tell us about the Blockbuster Video Online Total Access program. It sounds intriguing enough to give it a try. They gave us a code for a two week free trial. The neat thing about their program is that you can return your mail in movies to the store for a free rental there, plus they release the next movie in your online queue without having to recieve the movie back from the store. In addition, they send you coupons for in store movie or game rentals. My biggest concern is that I don't know how good the selection of Indie films and off the wall documentaries will be available at Blockbuster. With there being decent television a few nights a week still (CBS on Monday and Friday, fun to watch Idol and House on Fox on Tuesday and Wednesday), it gets hard to watch more than a couple of movies in the week. Once we hit the end of the sweeps in May though, it's time to bump up that queue and see how many movies you can run through!

Busy day

Today was a busy day work wise. Spent more time on the phone breaking down issues and making stuff work. That's what I do, fix the problems and get it working as quickly as possible to limit the issues to the customer. Today however, was spent getting things setup for my testing group and not the end users. There is more stress when the test team is on a deadline than if we have a small break in production. I'm also working with a new program to setup the paging alerts so we can fix things quicker than waiting for someone to call and let us know it's broken. It's nice to have a chance to learn something new, albeit on the quick timescale I normally get.
Spent time in the library tonight while Morgan had Harry Potter Club. I sat next to Alex while he played Spongebob on the computer and listened to the latest "This week in Tech" podcast. It has one of my Tech TV Alum favorites Leo Laporte running the show. I was very excited that our library was announcing that they are part of the MyLibraryDV program and accounts will be able to be setup beginning in March. Technology and the library really do go hand in hand. I have loved Morgan being involved there because I used to spend so much time working in the library from middle school all the way through college. Our library is trying to raise funds to expand to a new building here in town. I really hope that they can get the funding that they need, it's a very important resource for our family and for the community.

Recovery

This weekend really took it's toll on me. Our project at work took me in working from 8-12:30 Saturday night and then turning around and working from 2-5 sunday morning with checkpoint calls at 9, 11 and 1. Then we ran into some issues and it was online conferences, problem solving and idea storming sessions to figure out how to get things to work better. While there was not major problem, we ran into some performance issues with a database server for the application and somehow a data load that was supposed to take 2 hours, ended up taking a total of 22 hours. Needless to say I was worn out after the marathon and today was a trial just to keep going.
I was able to read two more chapters of The Circle Within yesterday but I'm likely to have to go back and re-read them when I have fully recuperated. Not much reading tonight, spent most of the evening watching the tube and reading articles posted to Digg. More work tomorrow, must get sleep. Here's to sweet dreams and brighter blessings tomorrow!

Can't shake the Funk

Lately I've been working a lot of hours and not having a lot of time to just work out issues that I'm dealing with. I have been having trouble getting the Funk to leave me alone. I'm working on it though, but it may take a while. This week I was carrying the beeper for work and have to work both nights of the weekend. Looks like the weekends for the rest of the month are already taken up with work to be done. It's good to be busy, but when it gets like this things tend to get nuts with me. A high pressure project like we're on I like to call "life sucking" because that's what it seems to do.
I'm working though a new book to help me get back in touch with my Pagan spirituality called The Circle Within by Dianne Sylvan. It takes an interesting walk within the beliefs of the Wiccan faith and so far has really helped bring me back to why I walked down this path to begin with. I'm only a couple of chapters into the book now so I hope to have further information as I read more.

Eye Opening Article

Last night I posted about my money obsession and trying to deal with my own money issues. Later on I found an article that really opened my eyes. I am amazed at the ways folks learn to cope and deal with their own situations the best that they can. This lady is trying to make ends meet being a parent and a student on $12,000 a year.
I find it harder to figure out now that I am an adult vs when I was only a kid in college. Kind of how everyday I am reminded just how awesome my own mother is when she managed our household of 10 while I was growing up. After graduation I was pulling in a salary that bested hers after 25 years at the same place and I am still struggling to make ends meet paycheck to paycheck. She was able to cope with the pressures and not crack, at least openly anyhow. I'm very proud of her and can only strive to be able to handle life the way that she has. My mom has provided me the framework to be a good person in this world. She shaped me with discipline, showed me compassion and encouraged me to reach out for my dreams. I surely hope that I am able to help my children do the same.

Obsessions

I have a problem that seems to be the bane of my existence lately. I'm obsessed at trying to figure out where every penny I have is working and what I can do to feel like I'm moving forward in life. I'm sure that part of it is a normal part of life, but there are days where it is an unhealthy obsession. Is it paranoia? I'm not sure. Lately things have gotten to the point where it is kinda controlling how I live. I'm always worried about falling behind or getting into trouble because of the way the money flows. We do tend to stretch ourselves thin some months, but I think that this is a typical American thing. Our economy thrives on impulse buys and debt. Of course now they have 10 commercials selling you stuff, 15 more to try and give you a new credit card and then 30 commercials saying that your credit score is on the line and the guilt sets in. I find that I deprive myself of things that I want because I don't want to fall into the "trappings" of the debt that is caused by it. I don't mean that I live a life without the good stuff. We have a lot of computers, tv service, broadband internet, cell phones. I think more of it comes down to balance. We have to balance the good bills (house, utilities, insurance, food) and taking care of the kids and the homeschool program vs the desires and wants that the tv and internet show me all day long.

One rant I must make here is what the heck have they done to cars and trucks these days that make the base price and "normal" payment so darn outrageous? Take a look at any decent vehicle that is family oriented: Large Sedan, Minivan/Crossover, SUV.. they are all above $25,000 just to start looking. Don't even start looking at options on them, you might as well add a second car on top of it. The banks and dealerships are glad to help you stretch out your payments to make them affordable and you can make that $350 a month payment for the next seven years. I swear it's all a gimick to push you to keep paying on everything and holding the average person under their thumbs. You can pay this huge amount for a long time on a vehicle that you will get bored with or won't last nearly as long as you are paying for it. But wait, they have this nice lease option with lower payments. Of course if you actually drive the pretty car instead of leaving it in the driveway, you'll pay out the nose when you have to return it and of course then we have to get you into the next new thing. Want to save the planet and us alternative fuels? HA! You're going to pay even more for your car and the government might give you a tax break but then you have to try and find someplace to give you the alternative fuel of your choice. End of rant for now...

Like I said. I have a problem. Is this the same for everyone?

Site redesign

Trying some new stuff here with the blog just to Jazz things up a bit. I have added some new google tools and the ability to list my site on digg.com . I doubt that we'll actually make the Digg homepage, but it's fun to try out some of the cool things out there in web 2.0 land.

Hope you enjoy more of my musings as we move forward.