Pre-change

An Experiment of Sorts

Jenn’s computer has been acting up, so we looked at replacing it but $999 for a new or even refurbished MacBook is not in the cards right now. We came upon the idea of an iPad, but she wasn’t sure she could live with just that. So, I got an iPad mini (32GB) and gave her my MacBook for now. Mine is 2 years newer than hers, but still 5 years old or so. It is temporary, I am sure we will get a new laptop in another year or two, but should work for now.

Shofar, I am ok with just the iPad. I have gone back to the computer a few times for goofy websites that just won’t work (namely Hulu, as I don’t see paying for Hulu plus just for Warehouse 13), and for resyncing a few items, but almost completely iPad for about 2 weeks now.

For saving files (I didn’t have all that many) I went with a mix of Evernote for PDFs and other read-only documents and Dropbox for anything I may need to edit. This may change to Dropbox only eventually. There is nothing wrong with Evernote, I just wonder if it may be easier to have everything in one place. I have read of many that swear by having both though, so am giving it a try.

I do not have an office app yet, but have been looking. I am waiting to see if LibreOffice comes to the rescue or if the rumors of Apple giving away iWork come true. I did by Grand Theft Auto III though (priorities, you know), but have not played enough for a review.

I got a case from someone at work, but not sure I like the bulk it adds. I had a case on my iPhone 4, but it ended up scratching the phone when dirt got caught between the case and phone. After that, I have been caseless on my iPhone 5. I have a feeling my iPad will end up the same, perhaps with a sleeve for travel though.

In other news, I took and passed my amateur radio exam last month, and have the call sign KD8VHX. Jenn was awesome and bought me a radio, 2 meter and 70cm bands. That gets me 10 or so miles range. It is a low cost option for now to see if I actually use it and if its worth spending for a HF radio with worldwide range (which are several hundred to a few thousand dollars!).

Jenn is going to Vegas with her mom and sister, on my birthday. I will make sure she makes it up to me later.

I think that’s about it for now, later all.

BREAKING UPDATE: Just noticed after posing, this is post 600 (in WordPress, it is probably a bit over that in post count).

Ten Years

Yes, today marks ten years since my first blog post.  Around 2:21AM, so you could argue it was kind of yesterday, but whatever.  This is post 599, with an unknown number of words, since I no longer have a way of tracking that.

I really do want to post more, it just has a habit of slipping my mind.  When I had no life, I had nothing better to do but nothing to really say.  For the past few years though, I have plenty to say, but no time to say it.  I tried to blame Facebook, as I would just post there, but I barely even do that anymore.

I think not posting also brings on the issue you have with friends you don’t see for a while.  You have a million things you would have told them, but you need to prioritize what to say and can’t pick, so wind up with nothing to say.

I have decided I am going to better utilize Flickr, especially with their new nearly limitless storage.  I will post a link to my album prominently once I have it better set up, but for now you can view my photo stream here.

I have a few ideas for posts.  I have some projects I did around the house I may try posting, or recipes or whatever.  We will see.

I can’t say how much longer I will be blogging, but I do plan to keep it up for a bit longer, and take a serious stab at being more frequent.

Any thoughts, leave a comment.

Ninja Parade!

Me:  Sweet, a Ninja Parade!

Lame Guy:  What?

Me:  I reached in my pocket and there was a mini Snickers bar, there must have been a Ninja Parade.

LG:  What the hell is a Ninja Parade?

Me:  You are just standing there, then with no signs at all, there is candy in your pocket.

LG:  I didn’t get any.

Me:  They must have sensed your non-belief.

LG:  How can you not believe in Ninjas?  They are a fact of history, elite Japanese soldiers.

Me:  Exactly, yet they sensed it.

LG:  I mean, their not some magical superpower like they are depicted in some movies and comics and whatnot…

Me:  …there’s the doubt, and that’s why there is no candy for you.

LG:  Whatever, you’re weird.

Me:  mmm, ninjalicious nougat…

Nine Years!

I think I may have said it before, but when I started this all I had no life, which gave me nothing to say but all the time in the world to say it.  Now, I have a life, am doing stuff, but always have something better to do that write it all down.  That and Facebook gets most of the little updates now.  I do mourn the loss of my record, that I could look back on when something happened, or reminisce about whatever event.  It would be nice if I kept that up.

Regardless, today is nine years since I began the blog, and it will stay only for at least another year.  I will put some thought into what happens beyond that over the next year though.  Does it get converted to some different format, does it stay online, do I start using it for another purpose, or does it all just get archived to my hard drive?  I have a year to decide.

In life type stuff, for those unaware, I have a permanent job (since July), a house (since September), and a dog (since November).  All are going well.

So, thats about all I have for now.  Too much to update on everything thats happened in the months since I posted, so I will just leave it here.

If you actually read this, let me know, so I have an idea of weather anybody reads and how worth it continuing to post would actually be.

nick

Experimental

So, just for fun, I am posting from my iPhone. Yes, I have a new iPhone. I need to set the blog back to the the homepage, now that I have a permanent job and don’t need to advertise for myself anymore. Also, on October 30, we would be at six months since my last update, so something here was needed. Hopefully more soon. Nick

Not Dead Yet

So, I looked at the clock, then the calendar, and realized I am about to go 6 months without posting to the blog.  It’s funny how you can go from posting every three days like clockwork  for years to suddenly making it months between posts.  Still, as the title says, it’s not quite dead yet.  I think I just need a reason to post.  I went for a long time treating this like a diary of sorts that happened to be open to the public.  Problem is, that really only appeals to a few friends voyeur sides, and not really to the larger crowd.  I haven’t figured out what direction to take yet, but I think once I pick a direction the journey itself will seem less daunting (that actually sounds a bit more “inspirational email signature” than I wanted, but will do).

The big news, I suppose, is that I am working, and have been since January 6, for Shape Corp in Grand Haven.  I am a Quality Engineer there on the GM launch team.  Shape, if you are not familiar (which you probably are not), is a rollforming and stamping company.  The main products are “impact beams”, the steel structure within bumpers.  The product line I am involved in primarily involves rollforming the beam then welding on several stamped components.  It is not a permanent position, at least not yet.  I am coming up to 4 months of a currently 5 month contract (originally 3 month, so thats something).  No real word on what the future might bring, though I kind of expect something next week (it will be 1 month from contract end, which was when my last extenuation was announced).  Honestly, even when my 5 months are up it may not mean the end, just a less certain future.

In other news, my 10 year high school graduation is this year, scary as that it.  Venue and date are supposed to be announced tomorrow via the FaceBook group.  It is rather exciting to look forward to seeing everyone and such, though it would be nice to be able to say I had a permanent job by then.

I am getting closer to my eventual backpacking trip.  I have been picking up supplies here and there for quite some time, and its high time to actually put it all to use.  This summer I really want to make at least one, mane two trips.  I actually even got into making and selling hammocks after making myself one.  I am not pre-making them anymore but will build them upon request.  It helped with the bills for a little while.

The SME Disc Golf Fundraiser continued on this year, for the third year.  Nice to see something I helped put together still going after I am gone.  Unfortunately, the current SME group doesn’t use the Facebook group much and none of use knew about it until it was too late.  Hopefully next years group will realize that reaching out to alumni during fundraisers is a good thing.  The Christmas Parade float also was built again this year, another tradition I helped get off the ground.  I went up to see it and ride along, and had quite a bit of fun.

The fish are, somehow, still getting bigger.  I occasionally walk by and notice just how huge Kitty and Jill are.  They need a bigger tank, but its just low on the list of needs right now.

Without job interviews, out travel has been semi limited.  Also, time has been factoring in as well, with both Jenn and I having off being semi rare.  We went to Bay City and Alpena for Christmas, NAIAS in January, and to Traverse City in March.  Not much else though.  I think a trip is due soon here though.

Jenn taught a Nursing CLinical course this winter for Baker College, Cadallac.  It was held at Mecosta County where she works.  She was also taking a class at GRCC over the internet at the same time.  It was one of the pre-reqs she needed to apply for her master’s degree.  Which leads us to…  Jenn was accepted into the Nurse Practitioner program at MSU earlier this month.  She will start in about a month with a spring/summer course, then get full bore into it come fall.  It is online with approximately monthly trips to Lansing for tests and such.  Very excited and proud of her, obviously.  Something like 800 apply, 200 are interviews, and 50 are accepted each year, so definitely something big to get in.

Obviously there is much more I could probably write about, having about 6 months of stuff that is unshared, but I don’t want to bore you with most of it.  I think 800 words is a pretty decent start after such an absence anyway.  So, I will leave it here and hopefully be back well before November 1 rolls around.

Slacking

Nick has been slacking on his posting, but with a good reason, so I thought I would post for him seeing as he hasn’t posted since last year.  First and foremost is he has a job.  Early January he started working at a company in Grand Haven as a Quality Engineer.  YAH!  That is the main reason for lack of posting.  Nothing to post and then when there finally was, he was too busy working to do it.

Christmas was fun, it was nice to see all of the families and spend some time.  We had turkey and ham dinner in Bay City which was delicious.  Played some dj hero which was harder than it looks but had better songs than the guitar hero game that we have for the wii.  Then at 3am we went up to Alpena with a 2am stop at Walmart in Tawas.  Oh and there is a 24hour Tim Hortons in Tawas which was really surprising because it’s Tawas.  Spent Christmas Eve at my Grandma’s party, it was nice to see everyone, some of my cousins, i hadn’t seen since the wedding.  Also got to meet my little cousin Eva, she was adorable but still not ready for kids yet.

New Years was pretty uneventful.  I worked so I celebrated it with the girls at work with some bubbly apple cider.  The countdown is not as fun when there is no alcohol involved, lol.  Nick went out to dinner with a friend from Ferris and then called me just after midnight.

We went to the auto show this weekend.  We went down friday night and stayed in Auburn Hills.  In the morning we got up and went to Great Lakes Crossings Outlet Mall.  Got some really good deals including a pair of Timberland Boots for Nick for $30 which are 120 online.  Then we went to lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack.  That was awesome as usual.  We split the classic steam bucket and an add on of cocconut shrimp.  Even wore the bibs.  From there we headed downtown to the auto show. Nick got tickets from work, so admission was free.  We were going to park in the casino garage and ride the people mover like we always do, but forgot that we always go during the week and it was a Saturday.  There were people and police everywhere and the garage was closed, so after taking ten minutes to go half way around the block, we paid 10 dollars to park in a lot and then went through the casino to the people mover.  There were three DHS agents and a canine at the stop and we were packed in like sardines.  The auto show was also packed, making it difficult to look at the cars.  Nick got to see the car that he is working on at work, and we got to sit in the Impreza which is one of the cars he wants.  I also got a chance to see and sit in the 2012 passat diesel which is the car that I want.  We plan to go to the GR auto show next week where there should be a lot less people and we can spend more time actually looking at the cars.

ok, I know I am missing lots of stuff but at least a partial blog is better than none:)

October 2010 (late)

Dang it, I missed October.  Oh well.  I update at this point because I feel obligated, having lost the passion I once had for it.  With luck, one day I will have a life and said passion will return.  Until then, you get this half-assed update.

The major two events in October were out Anniversary and Jenn’s Aunt’s funeral.  Our anniversary was fun, we celebrated it for 2 or 3 days.  On the actual date, we went out to The Melting Pot, and later that night went to Muskegon to see if their Wal-Mart had fabric.  We also went to Rak Thai, which was really good as as semi-anniversary dinner.

The funeral was this past weekend, we were up in Alpena Wednesday night-Sunday night.  It was Jenn’s mom’s sister Phyllis.  Wake was Thursday and Friday, funeral was Saturday.

Earlier in the month we visited Jenn’s Mom, Dad, and Aunt Mary in Ann Arbor.  I learned I can comfortably sleep in a window sill.

I started Hinter’s Safety on Tuesday, but had to drop out due to the funeral.  I am set up to join the next class on Nov 10 and 11.

I took the hammock up to Alpena with me, as there are trees up there to hang it from.  I am now convinced that an extra foot of length would be useful.  I also want to work on figuring out how to add a foot box at some point, but that will be later.

Apple showed off the first previews of 10.7 Lion earlier this month.  I have the feeling 10.6s rumored interface update will come, at least somewhat, in the coming previews of Lion.  10.6 had no real upgrades, just under-the-hood stuff, so Apple has a lot of pent up ideas ready for 10.7.

And that is, unfortunately, about it.  No job yet, just some more denials from a couple interviews, and no word at all from others.  I do occasionally kick myself over Pilkington, but nothing I can do about it now.  Here’s to hoping something else comes.

Til Thanksgiving…

nick

September 2010

So, September is at it’s close.  It began with, of course, my Birthday.  I spent it at an open interview session for about 8 hours.  Jenn took me out to Logan’s for dinner, and bought me 4 yards of rip-stop nylon (explanation later).

The following weekend, we went to Bay City on Thursday and visited, went to Uno’s, stayed at my Dad’s house, visited some more Friday and stopped at Turkey Roost on the way out of town.  Got a call for an interview at Turkey Roost even.  Then we drove up to Alpena and stopped at the Hospital to see Jenn’s Mom, then went out to the house.  I learned how to shoot, and turned out to be semi decent for a first timer.  Got enough in that I won’t be totally green when I take hunter’s safety at the end of October.  Went to the Posen Potato Fest (imagine St Stans and Munger merged together) on Saturday, then up to Mackinac City and St Ignace Sunday, then drove home.

This past weekend I returned to Bay City, sans Jenn, for the River of Time.  I was there Friday and Saturday.  Went to Birch Run with my Dad Friday (Coleman had 30% off everything in the outlet) and had some Tony’s, then spent Saturday with the Library staff at Rudy J’s (which has gone downhill) and then to the River of Time.  I was going to head out to Johnson’s Giant Pumpkins but didn’t make it.  I then headed home Saturday evening.

I had 5 interviews this month, at ConAgra, LG, Magna, Corlett Turner, and Bata Plastics.  Haven’t heard back from any of them yet.

I have decided that I am going hammock backpacking next year, hence the strange birthday gift.  I haven’t made it real far yet, but should have everything I need to get started.  I just need to find some space to work at this point.

In October, we have out anniversary coming up.  Its hard to believe it has been a year already.  We are still bouncing around ideas for what we are going to do.  I also have hunter’s safety the 26-28th.  Yes, at 28, I am just taking it.  I figured it was about time.

Oh, we went to the Allegan County Fair early in the month, and if you live in the area and have never gone, I have to suggest it.  It was easily the largest county fair I have ever been to.

We were going to go for another camping trip, or at least to the beach early in September, but never got to it.  We had a lot of fun in Petoskey though, and definitely want to get back out to a beach next summer, Lake Michigan is just SO much nicer than Huron (especially Saginaw Bay).  It was just a bit close to the end of the season.  Though, maybe there will be a small October camping trip, it has happened before.

I think that covers everything.  More next month.

July/August 2010

So the funny thing was, I was going to post like 3 times in early July but put them off, then life happened, then suddenly it was August and I had never made a July post.  Now, here it is the last day of August and I almost missed a second month.

So, July was honestly rather uneventful.  At least until the end of the month.  I had an interview on July 22nd in Indianapolis, IN with Pilkington Glass.  I almost didn’t go because of the location.  Drove down Wednesday, stayed the night, interview Thursday morning.  Standard stuff, but they seemed kind of impressed that I had some glass experience, even if it was only 3 months.  Was getting the feeling the quality manager was unimpressed though.  The HR rep took me on a plant tour, then back to the conference room where he told me that I should expect an offer the next day.  I was rather blown away, as I have been waiting for 14 months for this, but I really didn’t want it.  I left, started the drive home and about an hour later got a call from Disher Design who wanted to hire me on contract for the Johnson Controls battery facility in Holland, MI as a quality tech.  I got home, and went to the JCS interview that was essentially “This is the position, do you want it?  OK”, then got the call from Pilkington with the formal offer.  So, that weekend consisted of me going crazy trying to decide on a local contract position versus moving for a permanent position.  If I wanted JCS, I started Monday morning.  If I wanted Pilkingson, I had to let them know Monday, and would start August 9.  One of the most important decisions of my life, and one I would probably regret to some extent either way.  So, I ended up choosing JCS.  Even it didn’t turn permanent, things have been looking up, with more interviews lately and I didn’t see the need to relocate further away.

So, I was working 40-50 hours a week for the first part of August, up to the 19th.  I may get called back, may not, only time will tell.  Yes, part of me regrets not taking the sure thing, especially after I left JCS and have not had any interviews since, but I wasn’t really applying anywhere while I was working, so no interviews can really be expected.  At the very least, I picked up some experience and some cash to tide me over until something else comes along.

Tomorrow is 1 week until my birthday, go that!

This past weekend (Aug 27-29) Jenn and I went camping with her family in Petoskey.  We had wonderful weather, and it was a beautiful state park, located at the east end of Little Traverse Bay.  We were already planning for next summer’s trip before we left, and Jenn has mentioned maybe just the two of us going in a couple weeks somewhere closer by.

As far as bog news, I changed my registrar from NFSN to GoDaddy.  I also extended my domain registration through 2013, which will be the blog’s 10th anniversary as well as the 5th anniversary of nicholasyax.com.

Jenn and I got a Costco membership, so if anybody is interested in a shopping trip let me know.  We have been considering it for a while, and finally broke down and went for it.  There is a lot of stuff that is an awesome deal, and some that if you just watch for a Meijer sale you can beat.  It depends a lot on how long you go through stuff, nd how long the item is good for.

I finally signed up for a hunter’s safety course, in late October.  I figure turning 28, it is about damn time.

Well, I think that is all the important stuff that was missed.  See you next time, whenever that is.