Since starting my new job I’ve been just as busy as ever, but even more tired than ever.  I’m spending less time at work then I use to, but a lot of my work now is much more difficult then it use to be (physically and mentally) . . .  but it’s also more rewarding they it use to be as I’m learning a lot.  There’s a lot to get used to though.   

For instance, the last few weeks have seen me out of town more then all of last year combined . . . and that’s taken some getting used to.  I’ve been out on construction sites in various stages of completion, from ‘we’re getting patients into rooms a few hours after you leave’ to ‘when it rains, the water flows down the hall ways’.  All of them have been ridiculously hot, as in temps 99 to 101 (37C to 38C) with a heat index of 105 to 110 (40.5C to 43C).  Working in that brutal heat is tiring at the time, but even when I get back home it takes me a full day or two to recover (I’m just exhausted for at least 24 hours).  That’s new for me.  On the upside . . . I’m sweating off some weight ! 

I’m also learning a lot as I go.  Not just about cable management and building codes as we pull cable through construction sites and install security cameras in nursing homes, but about where the limit of my patience is.  I’m working with a lot of different people . . . some are fun to work with and some have found the limits of my patience.  All of which makes for a lot of welcome learning experiences . . . even if it’s learning  that I cant work with some people.  But it also leaves me with very little free time.  And what free time I do get . . . I’m usually recovering from the 10 hour days from earlier in the week or trying to learn Final Cut Pro 6. 

After having been out of town for several weeks, last week I was in the office learning to do quotes.  It’s slow going but a welcome change of pace from the blistering hot construction sites.  I’m learning as I go (which involves me asking my supivisor a question every 2 minutes), so it’s very slow going. I spent a week doing just one quote.  Now, this quote I got is a bit of a problem space as they want a medium cost video solution and have a LOT of ambient light  . . . so trying to find equipment that we sell and learn how to do the quote in the database and learn how to figure how much labor and cable we’re going to need is a lot to learn as I go . . . I’m a little frustrated at how slow this is going.  But I’m getting it bit by bit and I’ll get faster as I go.

This week I’m in Crestron training class, but that is for another post.

Just wanted to let everyone know I’m alive . . . just AFK a lot lately.

Well, long story short . . . I was finally able to update WordPress to a version that’s not two years old. 

Lots of other stuff has happened since my last post as well, but we wont go into that just yet.

Needless to say, it’s a new year and I’m revitalizing the blog.  Though Twitter has just about killed my blog, I think I have the time (and the drive) to post an update at lest once a week with content other then ‘nothing happened this week’ or the like. 

So, now that the web server is un-broken (I’ve been working with it all day long because I, apparently, broke it when I uploaded a picture to the church site) I can finally go home. 

New posts, and a new look, coming soon !

Last things first . . . twitter has all but killed my blog.  I see things on other blogs, I find interesting things online, I have personal things to share, all of which I post . . . but not on my blog . . . I post it on Twitter.  Takes 20, maybe 30 seconds to do it on twitter (via the Twhirl application that sits on my desktop), which is much faster then writing an entire blog post.  Part of it may be the fact that you’re very much limited on the maximum amount of characters in a twitter post, so it makes for faster blogging.

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What I’m busy with lately. . .

- getting church web page updated (with the help of David Mayer) with new content and tweaking the bugs that seam to be popping up

- prepping for the Community for Christ outreach on July 5^th.  This is where bunches of church’s in the area get together at the High School stadium and have a ‘community church service’.  We’re bringing sound again this year and . . . well it’s a pretty big undertaking to prep all the equipment and rent the extra stuff we need (weeks in advance) and then get it all to work in the scorching summer afternoon sun.  But it’s always exciting !

- recovering from a nice thick chest cold with some nice antibiotics, steroids, and a cough suppressant.  The steroid keeps me up at night (I cant skip a dose or that will make me worse) and the suppressant makes me loopy.  So the evenings are actually pretty fun lately lol. 

- trying to make our announcements look a little better (and more engaging) with a revamped design

- typing up a survey to get peoples feed back about the new site and media we’re trying out

In other news . . .

     E3 is over and, while I missed most of the live coverage (other then watching peeps Tweets and looking at joystiq.com) I’m still excited about a few games.

     Left 4 Dead 2 is coming out this fall.  Apparently this was going to be a huge update for original zombie-killing city-escaping FPS, but was so big Valve decided to make it it’s own game.  This has prompted some to cry foul, saying that releasing an entirely new game so close to the original is the company milking the franchise for all it’s worth rather then delivering on the massive amounts of DLC promised time and time again for the original game. 

     I’m kind of on the fence with this one.  When I first heard about this ‘protest’ to the new game I couldn’t understand why they were so upset about a new game coming out.  But when I think back to all articles and reviews of the original game where Valve promised time and time again a slew of DLC to keep the game going . . . I can see where they are coming from. 

     I’m really hoping that the new levels (maps, episodes?, movies?) are much less linear and more dynamic in the routs you take to the finish.  The new improved AI Director, weather, and time of day passage should make the second installment even better then the first.  Unless Valve just messes L4D2 up badly, I’ll be buying it for sure. 

     Assassins Creed 2 is looking pretty impressive as well.  This sequel is set in Renaissance Florence (and a couple other places) and has the new ancestor character, Ezio, friends with a young Leonardo DaVinci who has crafted for his him a strange new replacement to his throwing knives (a small gun).  There’s a pretty good interview over at joystiq.com (here) if you want more info and a cool trailer. 

     I want to see more on the new KOTOR and Splinter Cell games.  I remember seeing the ‘crowd dynamic’ video for the ‘new’ Splinter Cell game at the same time the   original Assassins Creed came out and thinking that they looked very similar.  Hopefully the ‘new’ Splinter Cell will be released before the SECOND Assassins Creed game is gathering dust.  KOTOR I’m just expecting to be good (with such a long development time now, hopefully they are crafting something worth all that time). 

Well it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything on the ol’ blog here.  So I figured I’d post some stuff to get some people up to date . . . the 8 of you who actually read this blog and know me (the other 327 of you . . . what are you doing here ?).

I’d like to once again say that I’m using Twitter a lot now, which keeps peeps up to date on most of my random thoughts and links to things during the day.  It’s much easier then doing an entire blog post, so I’ve been doing that a lot more now a days.  I use a desktop application called TWHIRL (it’s free), but there are a lot of other ones you can download.  Or you can just update your feed from the actual Twitter site . . . but I like twhirl much batter because it gives you little notifications when you get a new message and you just have to un-minimize it to see it.  My Twitter name is DXEndar.  If you see a picture of the dog, you’ve found me.

Tomorrow is my 30^th birthday.  It’s very strange to think about being 30 . . . because somewhere in the back of my mind, I never though I’d make it to 30 I guess.  Do I get papers in the mail saying now I have to act like the other adults ?  I’m not so much concerned about being ‘old’ as I am just with the fact that . . . I dunno . . . I suppose I figured I’d feel more ‘grown up’ by the time I got to 30.  Suit, tie, cubical, daily grind and the like.  Shouldn’t I feel different, see things differently now then when I was 22 ?  Not that I think entirely the same way . . . I’ve grown as a person from then time I was 22 . . .but . . . I dunno, I suppose I’ll just have to wake up tomorrow, feel not at all different then today, and deal with it later on. 

I’ve been doing a lot more video editing and server maintenance this past month or so then ever before.  That’s part of the reason for no blog posts.  It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, it’s just that I’m having to manage my time so carefully now . . . and when I do have a few free moments my laptop is usually rendering a video or something and I end up getting ready to work on the next thing as soon as it’s done.  Though I have been going home on time rather then staying late most days (with the exception of the week the database server failed). 

I’m beginning to feel the limitations of Vegas as a video editor.  It’s great if you want to do some text over video or stills, even has a few interesting plug-in FX.  But there are so many things that I come up with in my head and then realize that I’d have to edit frame by frame to get it to work . . . that I usually end up dumbing it down a bit visually.  I’m trying to make things more visually interesting in the videos that I do (thanks to Jacob Coy for a great link to an article on the most important rules of visual marketing, HERE if you fancy a look).  But, mostly due to having to prioritize my time, they end up visually boring . . . or just visually eclectic . . . or just not as good as they should be. 

Here is an example of the video we’ve started playing in Youth Service as we begin service to remind people of the rules of Last Defense (HERE).  And HERE is an example of the announcement video (where I DO use some pictures). 

I think in the announcement video there too much going on at once.  The info flashing up on the screen, the pictures flying in . . . I think there needs to be a better flow of what you look at instead of having peoples eyes move from top to bottom to top again.  But slowly they are getting better.  I just wish I could do some 3D FX with Vegas.  We just bought the full up version of Vegas less then a year ago, so there’s no getting any extra money to get something from the Adobe sweet.  I just wish they had some extra downloadable pluggins for Vegas.  Oh well.  They work for now.

The main server (DNS, Global Catalogue, FSMO roles, and Database Server) has been dying for some time now.  It started to have death throws a couple of weeks ago . . . so I hurried the process of moving all the roles (and database) to other servers (we have two others).  So now one server actually manages the network itself, and another is just the database server.  Setting up the database itself took several days and several calls to tech support.  That’s when I finally realized that our firewall is changing something about some of our files that we download from the internet.  When I went to install the downloaded updated version of the database, I kept getting Cyclic Redundancy Check errors.  So I finally plugged strait into the modem itself and BAM ! . . . it downloaded and installed like a charm.  A little bit of back up and restore, and a few minor glitches later and all is working well. 

Today also saw the solution to a network mystery that has plagued me for quite some time now (like 9 months or a year).  Without going into too much boring detail, I was having trouble with client computers getting the correct information about the network when they signed on.  FINALLY, with the help of my father, we were able find a rogue DHCP server running on the firewall.  It wasn’t listed in the WebMin interface as a service that was running (which is why we didn’t find it any earlier then this) but we found a process running on the firewall called ‘DHCP3 –server’ which gave us a clue that it was actually running in the background.  It was killed, prevented from starting up again, and the clients on the network all seamed much happier for it ! 

Well I have more to update, but it’s time for me to set up the video for Womens Bible Study and then go home and kill things . . . in a video game. 

Did I mention that in about 6 hours I’ll be 30 years old ?

Oh yes, the excitement never stops here in the DFA A-V department.  Finally got all the old master VHS tapes of services boxed up and ready to be put in storage.  took out two shallow shelves (that held the master VHS tapes) from the A-V room, put one in my office and the other in the amp closet to be used later.  That way I can archive the media I use for videos onto DVD and put them on a shelf (rather then on my hard drive). 

 Today’s fun activities include (but are not limited to):

- moving boxesto the Front Office basement . . . where we probably will never look at them again.

- re-racking the MOTU interface and getting all the inputs plugged back in

- cleaning out all the cabinets and then putting the stuff we need back in them (throwing away what we haven’t needed in two years or more).

- oh, and at some point . . . getting ready for the evening service. 

I’m posting less and less on the blog because I’m using Twitter more and more . . . and things are busy here too.   If you don’t use twitter yet, you need to register on their web page (free) and get Twhirl (a desktop client that works like MSN Messenger).  Who knew micro blogging would be so fun !

 Oh, and in other news . . . I don’t like our game stop here in Dickson any more.  I wish they would get their information strait.  One person tells me that the game comes out Tuesday, then I go in Tuesday and they say ‘Oh no, it comes out tomorrow’ and then give me a look like I’m incompetent.  That game has such good sound design . . . or rather, the demo had good sound design. 

Anywho, it’s back to the salt mines for me. 

Well it’s been a while since the old blog was updated.  After wrestling with the theme for a while, I decided to go back to the old style for now.

Things have been crazy busy for me here at the church.  There are like 30 small projects that have been uncompleted . . . well ever since I started working here 5 years ago.  I’ve made it my goal to get as many of them completed in the first few months of 2009 as possible.  These are projects that aren’t vital to the day to day operation of the church, or to services during the week . . . but are still things that need to get done.  Like cutting the Ethernet cables to length at the hub, cleaning out my office (and the A-V room) of equipment / parts that are obsolete, making forms for people to fill out when then need to use church equipment (rather then calling me the day of) . . . that kind of stuff.

Also, the influx of volunteers has been tremendous, mostly for Camera Operator positions, but that’s what we needed the most.  I changed the announcement slide from ‘We need volunteers to operate a video camera during service.  No Experience necessary.  All training provided !’  to ‘No, for real . . . we need your help !’.  As soon as I made the change, we’ve had a volunteer a week come in and want to learn.   Trying to organize times for them to come in and get trained has been the only hard part (as I’m teaching a sound class on Sunday afternoons as well).

And the sound class is going well too !  There is so much to learn.  It’s not difficult stuff, just lots and lots of simple things all happening at once.  There are about 4 or 5 people in the class (some people decided to join late, some people dropped out) which is just the right amount to get some one on one time with them.  We’ve gone over everything you could imagine !  From Electromagnetic radiation (and how it causes hums) to what a transducer is (a microphone or a speaker) to what needs to be out front in the mix the most.  We went over the sound board for the second time last Sunday and they seam to have it down pretty well.  This Sunday will be about insert cables and compression and reverb. 

This week is particularly busy as there is a lot of media that needs to be put together before Sunday evening.  Cant say why, just in case certain people read this blog.

And we have a new media campaign to get ready for.  I call it a campaign, but it’s just a bunch of videos that we’re going to be using in service each week.  More details to come as Pastor shares more with the congregation.

Hopefully Mondays will slow down more and I’ll have time for Link Dumps again.  And I’ll post my devotion for staff meeting when I get it done.  8- )

It occurs to me that I haven’t told people that I use Twitter. 

I use Twitter.

“What’s Twitter ?” you ask with that innocent look on your face.

Twitter is like a mini blog that you fill in throughout your day.  It has a small maximum letter input, so you have to keep your posts to a few sentences.  Then people who ‘follow’ you can see your posts.

“What’s the big deal ?” you ask. 

Well you can subscribe to other peoples twitter feeds and see what they are doing during the day and it’s a nice way of keeping up with how your friends are doing.  It’s like micro blogging or something.  Mostly you just post things like “I just saw the most amazing thing at [enter web site here]” or “I’m about to go master some Audio to CD on BigBlue” or “Does anyone know of a good MP3 player that’s free ?”.  Then people who subscribe to your tweets, can reply.  Kind of like a very slow chat . . . only not a chat . . .

But you need to install a client like Twhirl, which is a stand alone application based on Adobes’ AIR that automatically allows you to post your tweets and checks for your friends tweets for you, and just lists them for you in a nice small window.  Otherwise, you have to use the twitter web site to do the posting and see your feed, which is a pain. Thanks to Pete Cullen for the point over to twhirl.  I even read about it in Collide magazine today, who gave it 4 of 5 stars. 

It’s easy to install twhirl (and uninstall if you don’t like it).  Head over to www.twhirl.org and download it.  It will need to install Adobe AIR if you don’t have it, but the whole thing is very small and very light on resources.  You sign up for an account on twitter.com, then set your twhirl up with your username and password, and it goes and gets your posts automatically. Look for me on twitter.com, DXEndar, and click ‘follow’ and then you’ll get updates on me through the day. 

How fun is that ?  That’s more fun then . . . well it’s just very fun  !

Ok, long story short . . . my last pair of two week contacts have been in for more then 8 weeks . . . and it’s getting difficult to read the computer screen.  I don’t have an updated pair of glasses to use and I’ve been waiting for a new eye appointment since the beginning of December.  And for one reason or another, it’s been delayed and rescheduled and moved . . . up to last Friday morning (Jan 16th).  Then the eye place called Friday morning to tell me that the doctor was out sick and we needed to reschedule for the middle of February. 

Well I lost it a little bit on the phone . . . like went off just a tad.  And it was embarrassing

I didn’t curse or say anything obscene, but I did lose it.  I guess I had been on simmer all this week, what with doing all the little tedious time consuming jobs that needed to be done but just take way longer then you think they should.  And it’s been frustrating to have to lean into the computer screen and squint to try and read it.  And I’m using this eye place because it’s one of the best ones in town and it takes my insurance and usually they are very prompt.

But I cant see.  And I’ve been waiting for the better part of 40 days for an eye appointment and . . . then they wanted to move it to the middle of February.  And I suddenly was saying things to this lady before I was even thinking about them and . . . I just . . . kind of . . . snapped at this lady.  She was very nice, and I apologized, and then she put me on hold for a bit . . . and when she came back she had an appointment at for this coming Wednesday for 8:30 am.  She said that was the best she could do, but that she would call me if anyone canceled before that. 

So apparently I’m a little more stressed then I realized.  So today, I’m trying to do my best to relax and unwind. 

In other news, I was going to put up a little bit of a link dump . . . but I’ll just give you the headlines because I don’t feel like doing all that right now.  8- )

- Circuit City is closing all of their remaining stores.  So if you have anything preordered or on lay-a-way with them . . . get your money back now.

- F.E.A.R 2 demo is coming Jan 22 for 360 and PS3.

- Organic based Solar Cells, cool because they are flexible and could even be woven into fabric, are now better understood and, thus, closer to being used outside of a lab.

- Scientists have long wondered why Moon rocks are slightly magnetic.  They now believe that the Moon once had a liquid molten core, like the Earth, that magnetized all the rocks just ever so slightly.  The Moon no longer has a molten core (so far as we know), but the rocks remained magnetized.

- Some very smart people form Duke University used a new computer algorithm to make a cloaking material that was able to conceal a dot on a mirror.  First a dot, next a star ship !

All stories either from Joystiq or DailyTech . . . go to their websites for more info. 

You see what I did there ?  I got you with the caption and the picture . . . and now you’re all excited. 

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