Host Offline

I was trying to think of a catchy title for my first post after being away so long. Due some ironic glitch in my blogging software, "Host Offline" appeared as the default text in the title box. Why, yes, I have been!

I've had so much going on that I haven't had any time to blog about it! In the last two months I graduated college, moved, got married, and started a new job. My routine changed a lot and I haven't figured out where blogging fits in to it. Two a.m. used to be my prime writing time, but these days I'm in bed by ten so I can get up early for work. I almost decided to give up this blog, but I found out my father reads it (hi dad!), so I think I'll give it another go.

Life's been great. Melissa and I had a beautiful wedding, no family members disowned each other over the wedding planning stress, and then we had a wonderful week in Jamaica to unwind. (I'll put some wedding pictures up... eventually...) When I got back I started my new job as a programmer for an insurance company and it's turned out to be a good gig, they run a clean shop and treat people right. The only unfortunate thing is that I work during the day and Melissa works at night (she's a nurse). Our hours mean I leave for work before she gets home, and she leaves just as I get home.

Melissa found us a nice apartment in Norman, which IMO is the best city in Oklahoma. I got all my stuff moved up here and - this is really shocking: I'm actually organized! Kinda. I'm still a big pack rat and leave a lot of clutter around, but all my junk box goodies are in individual draws, bins, or containers. If you name something, I can lay my hands on it in 2 minutes without rummaging. I had had a week off by myself before the wedding, and I busted ass to get my organization project finished then because it could be years before I get another opportunity like that. While sorting my 100's of TTL chips into individual bins by part number, I suddenly remembered that I had actually started sorting them 10 years ago, and hadn't finished. So this is a once-in-a-decade event.

These days I'm working on a MMO game engine, and hand-wiring an 8-bit computer, among other things, on evenings when my wife is at work. I used to think it was not possible to get anything constructive done in short shifts, but I've actually gotten pretty good at working on my projects now for just 30 minutes or an hour at a time. Having my junk box organized helps.