In case you have missed it More-Than-Half-Full has moved to
http://More than half full - the blog Change your RSS feed or book mark to stay up dated on the latest posts.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Its Been a while - An update
If you have noticed that I haven't been posting much lately, things have been moving and shaking around here. Here are some updates.
I have been interviewing quite a bit lately so the interviews, prepping, following up, looking for new leads have been taking a lot of time. All good things. No home run yet so if you know of any one who needs marketing or channel management help send them my way.
There has also been a lot of fun stuff going on. Finishing up Cub Scouts and crossing over my Den of 10 Webelos - 9 with the Arrow of Light. Enjoying the big snow storm we had in Dallas. See my last post for how I spend those days. And finally the Olympics. Every four years you have to see the maniacs do half pipe, aerials, luge bobsled and all the other crazy speed events. Throw in a little figure skating for some culture and you have the winter olympics. Fortuneately they will be over this weekend so I can get some work done and get some sleep.
In other news, I am working on a new home and some expansion on More than Half Full. I am not ready to spill the beans yet so stay tuned for some fun stuff.
Look for me to be more regular with my postings and trying some new ideas.
Have a great weekend.
I have been interviewing quite a bit lately so the interviews, prepping, following up, looking for new leads have been taking a lot of time. All good things. No home run yet so if you know of any one who needs marketing or channel management help send them my way.
There has also been a lot of fun stuff going on. Finishing up Cub Scouts and crossing over my Den of 10 Webelos - 9 with the Arrow of Light. Enjoying the big snow storm we had in Dallas. See my last post for how I spend those days. And finally the Olympics. Every four years you have to see the maniacs do half pipe, aerials, luge bobsled and all the other crazy speed events. Throw in a little figure skating for some culture and you have the winter olympics. Fortuneately they will be over this weekend so I can get some work done and get some sleep.
In other news, I am working on a new home and some expansion on More than Half Full. I am not ready to spill the beans yet so stay tuned for some fun stuff.
Look for me to be more regular with my postings and trying some new ideas.
Have a great weekend.
Monday, February 15, 2010
No Job Joy #69 Snow Days
When you live in Dallas and you wake up to 2 inches of snow and more is on the way, things start to shut down. Since my phone interview had been canceled, I had nothing I had to do so I decided to take a snow day. A day to do things that I truly love but never make enough time for was what this day was all about.
My snow day started with two hours of taking photographs. I explored an area that I had been dozens of times but never ventured off the path. Today, I took the path not traveled. What I ended up with can be seen here. Snow Day photos Being in Dallas yet not seeing anything that resembles one of the largest cities in America was amazing. I felt as if I was back in Iowa for the first snow of the year. The large flakes, the silence of being in nature and the beauty of fresh snow.
After getting lunch and drying off, I went to pick up my kids from school. Another Dad and I carefully set up an ambush for the kids as they got out of school for a three day weekend. What followed was a 20 minute melee where everyone was covered with snow and exhausted from throwing and dodging flying snow. The joy of the kids being free to be kids in weather that they almost never see was inspiring. The amazing thing was that the snow was falling as hard as ever.
That night we had some small power outages as the trees started to feel the strain of the beauty that was piling on them and they came down taking power lines with them. Fortunately we had power all night. With me setting my alarm for a pre-dawn wake up call to capture the snow after it stopped. As we went to sleep we could see the brightness of the city lights reflecting off the clouds and snow making a strange glow everywhere.
As I drove around making photographs I had to avoid trees and branches that had fallen overnight. Making sure to pay attention to the stop lights that were out. This really wasn't a big problem as few people were out before daylight. Each time I set up my tripod I was amazed at how much snow we had. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen this much snow. Since there was no wind as the snow came down there were no drifts and the snow was a smooth layer of white icing on the world.
As I was revelling in the beauty of what seemed like a foreign land, the silence was occasionally broken by the sad sound of branched straining and breaking under the weight of the snow. Just as anyone who was with out power for more than a short time can attest, beauty can have a price.
After almost three hours of photographing the winter wonderland, my wife called and the power had gone out. Not that there was much I could do but I had the only camera that was charged so she has no way to capture the kids frolicking in the almost foot of snow. When I got home I found kids, dogs and adults playing in the snow along with a new snow man my wife had built.
The rest of the day was spent wondering when the power would come back on and trying to dry clothes by the gas fireplace. When the power did finally come back on here is what I found I had created earlier that day. Wonderful memories of a snow day.
The reason that this is a no job joy is that I had no where to be, nothing I HAD to do and was able to enjoy the snow day as if I were a kid again and create something I can share with others in my photographs.
My snow day started with two hours of taking photographs. I explored an area that I had been dozens of times but never ventured off the path. Today, I took the path not traveled. What I ended up with can be seen here. Snow Day photos Being in Dallas yet not seeing anything that resembles one of the largest cities in America was amazing. I felt as if I was back in Iowa for the first snow of the year. The large flakes, the silence of being in nature and the beauty of fresh snow.
After getting lunch and drying off, I went to pick up my kids from school. Another Dad and I carefully set up an ambush for the kids as they got out of school for a three day weekend. What followed was a 20 minute melee where everyone was covered with snow and exhausted from throwing and dodging flying snow. The joy of the kids being free to be kids in weather that they almost never see was inspiring. The amazing thing was that the snow was falling as hard as ever.
That night we had some small power outages as the trees started to feel the strain of the beauty that was piling on them and they came down taking power lines with them. Fortunately we had power all night. With me setting my alarm for a pre-dawn wake up call to capture the snow after it stopped. As we went to sleep we could see the brightness of the city lights reflecting off the clouds and snow making a strange glow everywhere.
As I drove around making photographs I had to avoid trees and branches that had fallen overnight. Making sure to pay attention to the stop lights that were out. This really wasn't a big problem as few people were out before daylight. Each time I set up my tripod I was amazed at how much snow we had. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen this much snow. Since there was no wind as the snow came down there were no drifts and the snow was a smooth layer of white icing on the world.
As I was revelling in the beauty of what seemed like a foreign land, the silence was occasionally broken by the sad sound of branched straining and breaking under the weight of the snow. Just as anyone who was with out power for more than a short time can attest, beauty can have a price.
After almost three hours of photographing the winter wonderland, my wife called and the power had gone out. Not that there was much I could do but I had the only camera that was charged so she has no way to capture the kids frolicking in the almost foot of snow. When I got home I found kids, dogs and adults playing in the snow along with a new snow man my wife had built.
The rest of the day was spent wondering when the power would come back on and trying to dry clothes by the gas fireplace. When the power did finally come back on here is what I found I had created earlier that day. Wonderful memories of a snow day.
The reason that this is a no job joy is that I had no where to be, nothing I HAD to do and was able to enjoy the snow day as if I were a kid again and create something I can share with others in my photographs.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
They grow up way too fast
It started with the "simple" task of signing our 6th grader up for classes as he starts Jr.High. For some strange reason he wants to take Latin. As far as I know the only people who use Latin are priests and bug researchers. He said it was that or German.
We were some what surprised that he competed the form correctly by himself. We just couldn't get over the Latin thing so we (Susan) started looking into what the impact of his decision might be. To make a long story short, what seem like a simple decision could impact the rest of my son's life including the possibility of summer school, if or which college he could get into and if he takes Latin he would use it if he went into science or became a vet.
I don't think our son is ready to make that type of commitment in the 6th grade. He isn't ready to look that far into his future. I'm not ready to look that far into his future. The thing is, the way we have pushed kids to be more like adults they have to make these choices at younger ages. When I was in the 6th grade the biggest commitment you had to make was were you a Cowboys, Raiders or Steelers fan and who you were going to sit by at lunch.
We were some what surprised that he competed the form correctly by himself. We just couldn't get over the Latin thing so we (Susan) started looking into what the impact of his decision might be. To make a long story short, what seem like a simple decision could impact the rest of my son's life including the possibility of summer school, if or which college he could get into and if he takes Latin he would use it if he went into science or became a vet.
I don't think our son is ready to make that type of commitment in the 6th grade. He isn't ready to look that far into his future. I'm not ready to look that far into his future. The thing is, the way we have pushed kids to be more like adults they have to make these choices at younger ages. When I was in the 6th grade the biggest commitment you had to make was were you a Cowboys, Raiders or Steelers fan and who you were going to sit by at lunch.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
No Job Joy #68 What a year it has been
It was a year ago today that I got on the plane leaving Grand Rapids a day earlier than I had planned. It was the start of a new adventure. I was unemployed. While I didn't think it would last a year, here I am with the chance to look back.
Most people see unemployment as the worst time of their life. While I won't say being unemployed is fun, it isn't all bad. Here in a nutshell is what I did with my year.
Spent with my family, went on a trip to Colorado, visited NASA, the USS Texas, the Nebraska state capitol, San Jacinto, the Dr. Pepper Museum and saw Mammoth bones, I helped with homework, optimized making breakfast and lunches, started practicing leave no trace on the walk to school, rode 3300 miles including 2 centuries and a 50 miler with my oldest, showed my wife where I went to college, made new friends, learned new technologies, got a certification, researched some new companies, built a fence, refinished a window and a shelf, finished many a honeydo that I had put off, went camping 10 times, caught up with old friends, made a rain barrel, learned how to tie knots and lash poles, lost my airline status, learned to twitter, and blog and many other things I know I forgot.
After all this if I haven't figured out that the most important thing is spending time with my family, being healthy and learning new things then I have wasted a year. Not that I didn't like my job, its just that sometimes we get too caught up making a living to live.
Second is trusting the right things to find a new job, do the right things for your family, that you are prepared to get through till you start working again and most importantly that you have something to offer that someone will pay for.
Looking back between now and then it has been quite an adventure. Over the year I have learned a lot of new things. Who my friends are and how to make new ones. What is really important in life and
Most people see unemployment as the worst time of their life. While I won't say being unemployed is fun, it isn't all bad. Here in a nutshell is what I did with my year.
Spent with my family, went on a trip to Colorado, visited NASA, the USS Texas, the Nebraska state capitol, San Jacinto, the Dr. Pepper Museum and saw Mammoth bones, I helped with homework, optimized making breakfast and lunches, started practicing leave no trace on the walk to school, rode 3300 miles including 2 centuries and a 50 miler with my oldest, showed my wife where I went to college, made new friends, learned new technologies, got a certification, researched some new companies, built a fence, refinished a window and a shelf, finished many a honeydo that I had put off, went camping 10 times, caught up with old friends, made a rain barrel, learned how to tie knots and lash poles, lost my airline status, learned to twitter, and blog and many other things I know I forgot.
After all this if I haven't figured out that the most important thing is spending time with my family, being healthy and learning new things then I have wasted a year. Not that I didn't like my job, its just that sometimes we get too caught up making a living to live.
Second is trusting the right things to find a new job, do the right things for your family, that you are prepared to get through till you start working again and most importantly that you have something to offer that someone will pay for.
Looking back between now and then it has been quite an adventure. Over the year I have learned a lot of new things. Who my friends are and how to make new ones. What is really important in life and
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Leave the world better than you found it
Many of you have heard of Leave No Trace which is program that helps teach people how to minimize their impact when they are camping and using other recreational parks. It is a great program that helps maintain our natural resources.
While most of us want to live in a cleaner world we rarely do anything about it except when we to organized clean ups of parks or neighborhoods. What if we all just did a little bit every day?
A few years ago I read about a cyclist who on every ride he picked up one piece of litter. The sad thing is he said it wasn't much of a challenge to find something to pick up and put in his jersey.
While that may not seem like a big deal this person rode almost every day so over the course of a year he would pick up 2-300 pieces of trash. What I have done as a goal for this year is to do the same. While I ride only about 125 times a year if each of us when ever we go for a walk, take a jog or ride our bikes were to do that the numbers get pretty big pretty fast. Imagine how much cleaner our neighborhoods, parks and roads would be. It would also reduce the amount of money spent by our local governments which could be used for other services.
My challenge to all my friends who exercise outside is to pick up one piece of litter each time you work out. This way you can leave the world better than you found it. Check out www.lnt.org for more on leave no trace.
While most of us want to live in a cleaner world we rarely do anything about it except when we to organized clean ups of parks or neighborhoods. What if we all just did a little bit every day?
A few years ago I read about a cyclist who on every ride he picked up one piece of litter. The sad thing is he said it wasn't much of a challenge to find something to pick up and put in his jersey.
While that may not seem like a big deal this person rode almost every day so over the course of a year he would pick up 2-300 pieces of trash. What I have done as a goal for this year is to do the same. While I ride only about 125 times a year if each of us when ever we go for a walk, take a jog or ride our bikes were to do that the numbers get pretty big pretty fast. Imagine how much cleaner our neighborhoods, parks and roads would be. It would also reduce the amount of money spent by our local governments which could be used for other services.
My challenge to all my friends who exercise outside is to pick up one piece of litter each time you work out. This way you can leave the world better than you found it. Check out www.lnt.org for more on leave no trace.
Friday, January 22, 2010
No Job Joy # 67 Busy Busy with more on the way?
I know it has been a while since I have posted but it has been crazy around here. Good things on the job front. Good things on the family front.
I am glad to have the time with my family. With any luck the luxury of being able to drop every thing and go for a ride or play football with the boys will be over soon. The last week has been filled up with visits from family, preparing for and having interviews, taking some training and all the other stuff we do in our lives.
When I do land my next job and am running back and forth between work, scouts, school and once in a while seeing my wife, I know I will look back at these days and be glad for the time when I could enjoy all that was going on around me.
Now its off to Boy Scout Camping.
I am glad to have the time with my family. With any luck the luxury of being able to drop every thing and go for a ride or play football with the boys will be over soon. The last week has been filled up with visits from family, preparing for and having interviews, taking some training and all the other stuff we do in our lives.
When I do land my next job and am running back and forth between work, scouts, school and once in a while seeing my wife, I know I will look back at these days and be glad for the time when I could enjoy all that was going on around me.
Now its off to Boy Scout Camping.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
