blog

So It’s 2009…

Well, it's 2009 and it doesn't seem all that different from 2008 — or even 2007, for that matter. Nevertheless, last year was a good one — mostly.

For the geek in me, after a couple of years of waiting, I finally bought the Mac Pro Tower I always wanted: the top of the line 3.2GHz Quad Core with an 8800 GT 512MB video card, 1TB of internal storage, and 16GB of RAM. That was a nice treat, and something that's already paid for itself twice over.

The musician in me also bought the guitar I've always wanted: my Gretsch G6196T Country Club in Cadillac Green. Pure honey. Oh, sweet Moses, I love this guitar.

The entrepreneur in me started RAILhead Effects: my own line of custom guitar effects. RHFX has been awesome on all kinds of levels, and I cant to see what 2009 brings us!

The philanthropist in me fell in love with the children of Kenya, and this brought about the birth of Charity4, my "vehicle of advocacy." 2009 holds BIG plans, so stay tuned for that!

The son in me came under stress, as we found out Dad has cancer. The last half of 2008 has revolved around getting him better, and the battle is still being fought — and we are all hopeful and confident we will see victory. However, it's been rough seeing Dad get sick and to watch him be so uncomfortable. I hate seeing him feel bad, and I hate that he's going through this — but I love how it's brought our already crazy-close family even closer together.

The employee in me resigned from my position at my Dad's old company so that I could be available to help Dad and Mom with all manner of things. That was odd: being 35 and resigning from a really, really great job. Thankfully, my parents have a few other small business, and I was able to be hired to work as a sort of Financial Manager for one of their partnerships. We're still getting things rolling, but once everything is moving, I have a feeling this will be one of the busiest jobs I've ever had (next to working for UPS, of course).

The husband in me spent another wonderful year with my best friend at my side — for 11 years, and counting.

The photographer in me scored loads of great jobs, clients, magazine prints, book publish shots, web content exclusives, contest wins, etc., etc. I haven't been shooting as much over the last several months (for obvious reasons), but 2008 was my best year ever.

So, looking back, 2008 was great — but it had its share of bad with Dad getting sick. 2009 looks promising on all fronts, and I can't wait to see what Life will throw at our family — and how we will deal with it as a unit. I'm looking forward to my first International travel and mission trip to Kenya, where I'll get to see some of the wonderful children I've fallen in love with. I can't wait for what lies ahead for Charty4 and RAILhead Effects. I can't wait for my Dad to be cured of cancer. I can't wait to see what God will do, and how He will move. The fortune I got in a fortune cookie a few weeks ago sums it up best:

"A refreshing change is in your future."

So be it.

Posted at 6:24pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

Christmas 2008

Man, that was fast, no? All that time and energy spent, and Christmas is here and gone so quickly — but it's worth it. We had a great time this year with family: lots of great food, lost of fun opening gifts, lots of great hanging-out and doing nothing together. Our main Christmas dinner this year was prepared by my sister and brother-in-law, and the family chose Greek food to be the theme — and it was awesome. I can't even begin to tell you what all the dishes were, but they were excellent. The music at our church's Christmas Eve-Eve service went really well, too, even though the practice beforehand had us all expecting the worst.

But like all Christmases, it's already here and gone — and gone too quickly. Next week will begin the routine of getting "Back To Normal" until New Year's Day. One of these days Winter will arrive, too, and I'll mentally reconnect the Holidays with the cooler weather. Texas, eh?

As for what ol' Santa Claus brought me this year, I scored pretty dadgum well — probably my best haul ever. My top cool gifts are:

• A 52-inch Samsung LN52A850 LCD TV.
• The Entertainment Center to house the big TV (that's not our house in the pic below).
• The 50W Weller WESD51 Digital Soldering Station.
• Nespresso Essenza C100 Espresso/Latte/Cappuccino machine.
• An M-AUDIO FireWire Solo recording interface, to replace my USB interface.
• A really nice, leather cigar case.
• Some of the DVDs I've been wanting forever (Pan's Labyrinth, Blade Runner, etc.).

I also got the obligatory clothing gifts, etc. All in all, I had one of the best loot-scores ever — so maybe Christmas gifts do get better the older you get?

The only thing I didn't get, though, is that dadgum Willys Jeep I've been wanting for over a decade. What's up with that, people?!?

Posted at 9:01am CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Posted at 9:27am CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christmas Eve-Eve-Eve Catch-up

Let's start this off with a report on my Dad and our Family Cancer Fight. By and large, we've managed to kick most of the cancer's butt six ways to Sunday — which is AWESOME. However, there are still a couple of small spots that are being boneheaded, and we'll begin taking care of them the first of the year. We were hoping the spots would be an infection of some kind, which would have (potentially) meant Dad's breathing difficulties could be explained away — outside of his already-present asbestosis. But, the biopsy showed cancer, and we'll be praying for healing to get Dad's lungs back to better capacity; it seems the lymphoma or the CHOP chemicals exacerbated the asbestosis, which lead to his breathing getting worse. However, we have hope for healing, because Faith is hope in things not seen — and we have Faith that God can heal the sick. We are, by no means, at the end of the line, thankfully. It's irritating, frustrating, anger-inciting, and sometimes depressing — but we can get through this chapter, too. I have a clear vision of our entire family doing family things together, all in good health. Mom and Dad walking in their garden together, Mom and Dad shopping together, the family vacationing together — Dad completely delivered from his need of supplemental oxygen. Hope in things not seen, my friends.

••••••••

Speaking of cancer, if you're reading this and you're the praying or vibe-sending type, please say some words not only for my Dad, but for the Mom of a good friend of mine. My friend's Mom's name is Liz, and she's fighting a horrible battle with cancer right now, and she too, is in much need or prayer and support. The family is strong, but cancer can quickly make the family weak, emotionally and spiritually. Pray for their strength, and pray for wisdom, and pray for healing, mercy, and compassion.

••••••••

With the above said, there's been another massive change in the Family History: a McCown resigned from the company my Dad helped become the highly respected, front-liner it is in the construction and scaffolding industry. That McCown was me. Yup, as odd as it seems, I've resigned — but I resigned for a wonderful reason: to be available to help my Mom and Dad with anything and everything they need help with. Another great thing about this move is that I'm able to maintain employment at another one of my Dad's companies, where I'll basically be a financial manager of sorts, handling investments, tax issues, etc. This combo will let help with Mom and Dad when needed, as well as help Dad with portions of investment management — so I'll get to go back to working for my Pop.

It's still strange to sever this tie after all these years. Not only that, but our company has been in the family for decades — longer than I've been around — so our company is all I've known. I used to call Dad at work when I just a little kid and talk to his secretary — and 28 years later, I start working with her. All the people that made — and make — the company what it is for all these years. So many memories. So much success. What a blessing it's been to me, my wife, and the entire family — and more importantly, under Dad's compassionate leadership, it's been a blessing to the hundreds of workers that we employ. But, my time is done there. My job description now covers doing whatever Mom and Dad need — and I can't think of a better way to spend who knows how long. Before, it was just Dad I worked for. Now, it's Mom, too — and I love getting to spend more time with both of them.

There are several people I miss seeing already, and it's only been a week — and it's kind of nice to think that there may be a few people missing me, too. Good looks, guys and gals!

••••••••

This move will also let me devote more time to getting my guitar effects — RAILhead Effects — pushed and in publicity more. I'm still selling a couple/few a week after the initial rush — and that's on nothing but word of mouth and some way too short demos on the site. I have a feeling that once I start advertising and get some new demos up, I'll be able to build a fairly consistent amount of the suckers without worrying about getting too busy with my other job.

••••••••

And in speaking of starting things, for those paying extra special attention, I just renewed my REALbasic Professional License. What could that possibly mean...? Hmm...

••••••••

Here's the final result of the homemade Christmas Ornament I mentioned a few posts back — it's a fully working, lighted Christmas tree!

NICE! It's powered with two 2032 cell batteries, and the switch can turn off the lights to preserve batteries (the lights are on in both these shots, but you can't easily see them the first shot).

••••••••

Okay, that's it for now. My Lunesta is to the point of letting me know it really can drop me like an ox if it has to. You got the update and prayer requests for Dad — as well as the one for Liz. You got where I resigned from my position as CIS and HR Manager at Miken Specialties, ltd. You got where I'm working at a new private company as a Financial Manager. And lastly, you got the wicked-cool homemade ornament we made for 2008.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Please never forget that there is a God in Heaven that loves you as you are right now — not as someone "thinks" you should be. He wants you to have a full and abundant life, enjoying the most of what we are offered here on earth — and He wants to lead you toward that abundant life with Jesus, the One who died for our sins because He loves us so much.

"Life is nothing more than emotional and physical ups and downs, mountains and valleys. Our soul and spirit rests at the foot of the cross, which is unmoving. A Christian's Life is a result of how he or she tempers both of those with one another, letting one serve as the counterbalance for the other when needed." — Maury McCown.

Posted at 8:15am CDT | Permalink | Comments (4)

Coming Soon…

Just a quick note to say I haven't forgotten about the place — I've just been crazy-busy. With that said, I have interesting and exciting and scary and unfortunate news to share soon, so keep your eyes peeled...

Posted at 7:12pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thursday, With Randomness

There's been so much going on lately, I haven't had much time to post anything. Such is life, no? Where to start...

I had to deal with One Of Those People today — the ones that can't seem to get their computer to work. Ugh. In all the decades of my life that I've been using computers, why am I the only human that never has any problems? Am I Midas or something? Anyway, this guy comes into my office and walks all the way around to the side of my desk — he doesn't stay at the front where the dadgum chairs are. This is his first 2 strikes at once, and he's lucky I didn't get up and draw-out the boundary lines using the tiles on the floor. He then tells me he can't "get his computer to work plugged in to our ethernet." Oh boy, here we go. I go upstairs and into the office he's using, and he has everything plugged in correctly. I sit down, and as I launch Internet Explorer, he says he doesn't know "if he has internet or not." Well dadgum, it seems he does. I visit Apple.com and it loads just fine. I step back and ask him to do whatever he was doing that didn't work, and it works. Of course it does! There was never anything wrong!

For those of you that don't know what it's like for us IT Guys to deal with you, let me point out the frustrations from this incident...

• First off, his computer "works." If it's on, it's working. We know "what you mean" — but any way you slice it, your computer works.
• You don't plug into "ethernet." Ethernet is NOT a place, it's a bundle of cable. It's a THING, not a location. You plug into a NETWORK.
• You can't have or not have "The Internet" — it's around regardless of whether or not your system can connect to it.
• If it works when I try it — and it works without me doing ANYTHING to make it work — it worked to begin with — you just jumped the gun and freaked-out. Be as patient as I am when I deal with you, and you won't have to have PC-related hissy-fits all the time.
• You don't need to hover over me while I fix whatever you screwed-up. IF there's actually something to fix, you won't understand what I did to fix it anyway, so go take a smoke break or kick rocks.
• Don't tell me all the errors you think you remember reading, trying your best to string together a sentence full of words you don't know or understand. I'll ask you if I need any info from you, because 99% of the time, you'll waste minutes of my life telling me things that are a) wrong, and b) have no bearing on anything I'm going to do.
• Don't ask me what I did to "fix it," because again: you won't understand, anyway. AND, if I'm in a mood, I'll really tell you what I did just to make you feel like a dolt, showcasing your inadequacies.
• Under no circumstances should you exhale any of your breath anywhere close to my face. PERSONAL SPACE. Get some, and leave mine be.
• Your best bet for success is to simply show us where your system is, try and fumble-out what you think is wrong, then LEAVE. You will be summoned upon the repair's completion.

••••••••

We have a family tradition where all the kids make an ornament to go on a special little tree at my parents' house, and while I'm incredibly late getting ours done, I'm pretty excited about finishing it. I can't image why it wouldn't pan-out, and if it works as intended, it'll be pretty dadgum cool. Here's a teaser pic of me testing out some LED/resistor combos on my breadboard:

I'll be powering it with two 2032 cell batteries (seen in the upper left), and it'll sport a mini-toggle on/off switch. It's not hard to guess what it'll end up being, but it will still be sweet to build!

••••••••

I'm going to be a bachelor all weekend, so that'll be cool and boring. =/

••••••••

Our new 52-inch LCD TV (a Samsung LN52A850) will be delivered Saturday, but I can't use it until Christmas — or until our new entertainment center thing gets delivered. I totally can't wait for this monster to arrive!

••••••••

We have to get our Kenya shots ASAP. Typhoid just isn't something I want to experience.

••••••••

It snowed last night, which was cool. It was all gone in no time — but it was beautiful while it lasted. Any bets on whether or not it'll be 80° on Christmas?

••••••••

If you would abstain from 10 medium cups of coffee at Buc-ees every month, you could provide medical, education, and supervision needs for a poor Kenyan child. That's $1.25 per day. Do you really not have $1.25 per day to give? BrightPoint for Children.

Posted at 11:47am CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cicada Portraiture

I sure have been short on words the last several posts, and this one will be no different — merely a pic of a cicada I found yesterday. Click to view large, or see him on my Flickr page.

Posted at 4:06pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (2)