More Curious Than Worried

Week in Review for Jan 13, 2009

I’m really trying to make sure I keep up with my blogging and also make sure I post interesting stuff. Can I keep up with a weekly post? I guess there’s no way to know unless I just dive in so here is the good, the bad, and the thoughts for my week ending today.

Note: Most of my internet world was flooded with information from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, so I got to find out about a LOT of cool gadgets. Please excuse the extra amount of geek-drool all over this post.

Things I Think I Liked

• Got the big ball rolling in the home search.
• Best CES coverage goes to Tekzilla. Sure it turned into a-whole-lotta-gadgets shows, but isn’t that really what CES about is anyways?
• A WordPress tutorial that walks you through it barney-style. Thanks Anthony!
• IO Gear wireless video (As it turns out, IO Gear’s site wasn’t working when I posted this, but it’s really cool. I’ve always wanted to be able to wirelessly hook my ‘puter to my TV)
• Brother badass sewing machine. The Quattro™ 6000D. Did he just say “badass sewing machine”? Yes I did.
• The watch phone! It exists! With a touch screen and bluetooth connection. Dick Tracy never had it this good.
• The Powermat wireless charging station.
• Made reservation for honeymoon at A Mountain Valley Bed and Breakfast in Estes Park.
• Ashlynn is a big fan of Sorry and Mario Kart. See her driving skills here!

Things I Think I Didn’t Like

• Got a new workstation in the communications center at work. It’s so locked down,we can’t even access Notepad. WTF?
• Negativity begets negativity. My co-workers need an attitude adjustment. Not really in a bad way. It just needs to happen.
• Some group of dumbasses are suing to attempt to block any mention of God during the inaugural ceremonies. Usually I’m on the side of those who want to limit the reach of organized religion, but this is ridiculous!
• Colorado Labor Department Puts Dent In Unemployment Numbers: by hiring more call center employees to deal with the high number of unemployed residents.
• I had to make an appointment and pay $25 for a doctor to tell me I can take 4 Motrin instead of 2 for my painful rib.

Things I Think I Think

• I think Obama should keep his BlackBerry. Hell, I think he should be issued a government BlackBerry. This guy agrees and he’s a internet tech-journalist. That makes him smart, so I’ve heard.
• I think less drastic ups and downs in the stock market are a sign of the bottom.

This Week Made Me Wonder…

• Is January “Convention Month”? I spent all week hearing about CES and MacWorld online. Then I hear ads for the National Western Stock Show and Sportsmans Expo in Denver this month. The Detroit Auto Show is also this month.
• Could you turn a USB drive into a key? Has it already been done? Probably.
• If you could text 911, how would it work?
• Would an intranet blog at work help my boss keep us in the loop?

Things To Look Forward To

• Presidential Inauguration 1.20.09
• More home searching
• Getting invitations for the wedding ordered (I wonder how many we’re gonna order?)
• Being done with this post. This took way longer than I thought. So much cool geeky stuff to share and I didn’t even put it all in here!

Overwhelmed by Possibilities – An Ongoing Problem

Once again, I have completely overwhelmed myself. This month, I jumped into the deep end of the social internet by keeping up with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and by staying committed to my blog. There is one big problem with my blog though: It has way too many possibilities! There are so many things I want to say in my blog, but what direction do I go with it?

I don’t feel comfortable blogging about everything I’m interested in because most of my interests have fairly targeted audiences. My interests include: technology, public safety/dispatching, personal adventures, wedding planning, hockey, football, etc. Do I create a blog for each topic? That sounds a bit extreme, but then again if you’re reading my blog because you dig my point of view on Ubuntu and social media then you probably don’t care about my thoughts on dispatching or how my wedding plans are shaping up (Plans are going pretty good, thanks).

This always seems to happen with me when I adopt something new. I dive in headfirst, I think of all the possibilities of my current project, then I get overwhelmed at all the possibilities and can’t decide which way to go with it. I end up stopping whatever it is I’m doing because I don’t know what I want to do the most. This post is my attempt at avoiding that.

Any advise will be taken as sage words from a wise soul.

“Chase after truth like hell and you’ll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat-tails.” – Clarence Darrow

Hunting for houses: Part 1

Today Corrine, Ashlynn and I went out house hunting for the first time. We met our realtor, Amy Terry at Tommy’s Subs. There was 2 reasons for meeting at Tommy’s: 1. It’s freakin’ Tommy’s! 2. It’s close to the neighborhoods we were looking in.

Houses are mostly out of our price range, but we thought we’d give it a shot. The first house we looked at was ok. It’s a bi-level house with a 2 car garage. It could work. The things we didn’t like about it were the hedge and the cramped bedrooms. The somewhat worn and broken wooden fence in the back might’ve been a problem except the neighbor’s dogs were nice. We liked the kitchen, the deck, the 2 levels and the big freakin’ garage.

Everything went down hill after that house. The next house we looked at had a really nice backyard, a huge master bedroom with a huge closet and a jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom. The downside: It had no kitchen. Well, half the kitchen was there, but the apparent flood it had caused them to take out all the flooring, half the cupboards and even the kitchen sink!

The houses after that were all in various states of ugly. One house was on a block where I expected the police to be staking out and the house itsself had foundation problems. The kitchen floor was so warped, walking on it made me feel like I was drunk. Another house had super pink shag carpet and no appliances.

We looked at a couple newer cookie-cutter houses. I liked one of them, but Corrine doesn’t like them because they’re, well, cookie-cutter houses. They all look the same and they’re really close to each other. The one I liked had a backyard that had about the same square footage as most people’s living rooms.

Next week we’re probably going to look more at condos or townhomes. It seems like the houses in the areas we like are just out of our price range. The ones we could afford seem to need too much work. This has definitely dampered Corrine’s hopes, because she was really looking forward to having a house. As much as I’d like one, we really can’t afford one yet. Hopefully next week offers more hope.

Making my blog feel more like home

It’s time to make my blog feel more like me. I’m never comfortable looking and acting exactly like anyone else and having a blog with a pre-made theme, no matter how obscure it might be, feels like I’m wearing someone else’s clothes.

Here’s my simple plan to make my blog my own:

Step 1: Put my big ol’ name on it –
“But it has your name on it already.” You’re tempted to say. But what’s cooler: scottweblog.blogspot.com or www.scottpantall.com? You know which is cooler. I don’t have to tell you. I wonder if the day will come when everyone has their own website. Should I register www.ashlynnpantall.com now?

There is one potentially big obstacle in my way though. My current webhosting account was started with my wedding website, so if I want to add scottpantall.com to that account I’ll have to keep my wedding domain name, konoldpantallwedding.com, active as long as I want to keep my scottpantall.com domain active. Are you still following?

While this may not seem like a big deal, I don’t want to deal with konoldpantallwedding.com indefinitely so I’ll have to find a way around this.

Step 2: Giving my blog it’s own clothes -
The internet, and techonology itsself is all about using other peoples’ things, but to seperate myself from the rest of the herd, I gotta do my own thing. I’ll spend the next couple of weeks tinkering with my blog. I’ll change colors and backgrounds, resize sections, add content and widgets, etc.

I’ll be soliciting help from 2 of my good friends, Anthony Wyatt and Candice Guilbeault. Both of whom already have their own websites in their names.

There is a good chance I will make more than few errors, which will make my site look like complete crap for a short amount of time. Please let me know if you see one so I can fix it.

“Part of understanding the creative urge is understanding that it’s primal. Wanting to change the world is not a noble calling, it’s a primal calling.” – Hugh MacLeod

Facts, Opinions and Goals for 2009

Here is my obligatory New Year’s post: My summary of expectations of this ninth year of the 21st century. 2008 was a much better year than 2007 and I expect 2009 to continue that trend.

I would tell you what my new year’s resolutions are, but I don’t do those. Something about the phrase “new year’s resolution” says “quit by mid February” to me.

So without further ado… well maybe a little ado… what is “ado” anyways?… here are my facts, opinions and goals for 2009:

Facts

• I will buy a place to live.
• I will get married.
• Ashlynn will start kindergarten this fall.
• I will have a Network+ certification.
• I will have my own website.
• I will have much less credit card debt than I have now.

Opinions

• By this date next year, I will be attemting to mooch off the success of at least one of my currently unemployed friends.
• By the end of the year, the major TV networks will have successful web-only shows.

• Keep in touch with friends and family better – I say this every year. Maybe I’ve been thinking of it as a resolution. If I keep saying it, maybe it’ll stick. This shouldn’t be too hard since buying a home and getting married are big deals that you usually tell your friends and family about.
• Contribute more to the internets – 2008 was the year I learned how to use RSS feeds, find blogs and get info from MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Now it’s time for me to give some back.
• Depending on the state of the economy and housing market, start my business.