I guess I also failed to mention that I have had a full mid-life crisis and bought a motorcycle.  I think it is something I want to learn.  I'm still pretty nervous on it.  I have been practicing in the evenings and plan to take the Health and Safety Council class in July.  I haven't even snapped a picture of it yet, so I posted one that I found on the web that is very similar.  Mine is all dark reddish or maroon.  It has a luggage rack and sissy bar and back rest on back.  Otherwise is like this; a Suzuki 650 GS.

My plan is to learn it this summer, and if I still have the desire, move up to a bit bigger bike.  I don't know yet.  I'm having fun, but I'm having a lot of anxiety.  Sometimes you just have to face your fears.

Wow.  Been a while since I have written anything.  Its like I forgot I had a home page entirely.  A lot has happened.  I have been busy.  As I mentioned earlier, I lost my job at SITEL.  I acquired one at AI Software Solutions, and started on February 25th.  I guess I do so much web work I just am not inclined to work on my own stuff.

The second and third storms were also around 12 inches each.  Here is a picture of my back deck.  We have to scoop it today because it is melting into my basement.

Hamburger anyone?  Its going to be a while.

We have had a couple of snow storms.  Three in ten days to be exact.  This picture is the after math of the first one.

Or at least a couple days after.  12-14 inches.  Those icicles are much bigger now.

I noticed that I had not written since all the complaining I did about SITEL.  All seems to be well.  I have had a few good interviews and have contacted Bellevue University about taking some classes.

The weather has been an issue.  I don't think there are many people in Omaha who have worked five days each the last two weeks.  Though this has slowed down both the interviews and the decisions by the interviewers, there seems to be plenty of new opportunities posted on Career Link every day.

I have an enormous amount of pressure on me right now by people I do not trust.  In order to receive my severance, I must perform my duties admirably until I depart on the 16th.  That is very hard to do, when "Frontier Justice" is at the forethought of my mind.  Mind you we don't all do the things we think.  It's just a form of mental masturbation to help me get through the next four days.

Slowly, people are finding out that I will be gone.  Their condolences, good wishes, and even anger at the system, don't seem to help the situation much.  I could compare it to a divorce.  If you break up with someone, you cut ties and let things heal.  In a divorce, you must stick around and take responsibility for things you no longer own.  Four more days.  Four more days.

SITEL gave me the perfect birthday present last week.  It came in a thin blue folder with a return envelope.  It was a severance package with a term date of January 16, 2004.

I've been having a flood of emotions that I can't explain.  I had not been very happy there as of late.  It always seemed to be two steps forward and three back.  I was not learning any of the new technology.  I was not attending any of the conferences related to my field.  At the same time I felt at home and had become pretty close friends with the members of my team.

I am in a terrible amount of fear and self doubt at the moment, and am letting that carry into my personal relationships.  Once again "Wunderkind" has become expendable at an organization.  "Wunderkind" was a nickname given to me by the owner of G & G Mfg 15 years ago.  He really wasn't being nice when he said it, but I've taken it as a compliment since.  He was very disappointed  that I had moved on, saw me in a bar, and said, "Hey Wunderkind, shoot some pool?"  We split two games each, and decided not to have a tie breaker.

I found this neat website a couple weeks ago at http://www.terraserver-usa.com  You can use it to pull up USGS satellite and aerial photography maps of many places in the USA.  For the Omaha Area, it does not have anything West of 60th Street for some reason.  I did find a picture of my house, and my brother Steve's house.  If you are familiar with the neighborhoods, you can probably pick them out.

There is tension in the upper echelons around here. Everyone is speculating why. Some think it's a company sale, because the stock is trading high and at a high volume. They have been working on a company wide census, and can't come up with a number.

It's not just me that has felt the boss has been acting different. Heidi and Mark approached her yesterday, and she said not to worry, that it was something else. I just heard her bite the head off of our purchasing agent. In many ways he deserved it. (long story)

It may be time to work on the resume. Everyone is on pins and needles.

I can't believe I have let my weblog loaf for a couple of weeks now.  We had our first snow storm last night, and stranded in my little house I took up playing with my camera and PhotoShop.  I made a few pieces of abstract artwork.  Low resolution versions are uploaded at  http://members.cox.net/studebkr1/technature

Yesterday one of my coworkers discovered a great site were artists, IT, marketing & photographers can collaborate and share images for almost free.  It is called iStockPhoto and I highly recommend it.

Thanksgiving is here and gone.  Not many shopping days left toward Christmas!  I took some pictures of our dinner.  They are at http://members.cox.net/mentalgooseflesh/tg2003/   My kids, and my sister could not show.  I got pictures of most of the people there.  Pretty good for me, since I usually don't take pictures of people.  (I've always been a landscape kind of guy)

I wrote in an earlier post that Roncalli had won the Class B state football championship

I was in error.  They played McCook in the finals for the title, but got beat.

Decided it was time to bite the bullet and update my digital camera.  I bought a Fuji.  Mixed reaction to it thus far.  It seems to do far more than the HP pocket camera I had, but consumers are not reporting happy things about the this years construction of the product.  I have friends very happy with earlier models.

I put a couple low res test shots up at http://members.cox.net/studebkr1/fuji/  Yes, them silly dogs again.  So often the subject of pictures when I don't know what else to take.

Took some of the cat too.  I am getting ready to find her a new home.  My daughter has a friend in Lincoln who might be interested, and I think a few pictures combined with a Thrifty Nickel ad will do the trick.  (Cat lovers are suckers) <grin>

FBI Searches Never Land for Weapons of Mass Destruction

Come on.  Admit it.  That is a headline you would want to see.  Michael Jackson was served another arrest warrant for sexual misconduct.  We will see if this one sticks.  Just go to Fox News and read all about it...

Last week, I took a day off to recover from the Kiss / Aerosmith concert.  I did come up to work for a while, and brought my dogs.  This is a picture one of the employees sent me after seeing them.

That might actually be a basset hound and not a beagle, but the thought of them stealing my truck for a joy ride is scary enough.

Did I mention I'm taking CW dance lessons?  Yeah.  I thought my parents would laugh at me because I gave them such crap about it when they took lessons 10 years ago.

It is something my S.O., I and a couple friends do on Monday nights.  It has been both fun and good exercise.  I was three left feet last night though.  I'm fine until I start thinking.  You know me, I have a hard time not thinking.  I may not be thinking of anything relevant to the topic at hand, but I have a hard time shutting my brain off.  They assure me that all I need is practice.