Where was *this* when I was growing up?

We stumbled on a Groupon a couple of days ago for custom superhero outfits. I mean, how cool is this? While it lacks full-body spandex options (you might see this as relieving or disappointing, depending), options for mask, cape, shirt, and bracers are all available. I saw this and said to my wife, "I know what Jackson is going as for Halloween this year." :)

Heck, *I* may want one of these. Father and son superhero team! V-Man and his little sidekick, V-Boy!

Maybe the names need some work, but the idea is good...


Current mood: geeky

Life's not a beach, redux

Argh.

We were all set to go to the beach yesterday. We got out a little later than I would have liked, but we still headed out and found ourselves there at around 1pm after a 3 hour drive. We should have been able to enjoy a beautiful, sunny, warm-but-not-too-hot day at the beach. We had our beach umbrella, snacks, water bottles, folding chairs, books, etc.

We had even checked the weather to make sure it wasn't too cold or cloudy. Buuuuut we forgot to check one very vital thing: wind speed.

It was gusting at around 25 MPH. I had purchased a sand anchor thingie for the beach umbrella to keep it from being blown away, but it totally worked for about 25 minutes before it blew over because the wind was so strong.

From the time we pulled up to the time we drove away was about 1.5 hours. 45 minutes of that was setup and clean up. We had about 45 minutes on the beach with the wind whipping sand into our eyes and generally making everything miserable before we gave up and went home.

And on the way home, the freeway closed down because there was a some semi on fire about 20 cars in front of us. Billowing smoke and flames, with nobody getting by. After 20 minutes of not moving an inch, I drove up the shoulder and got off the freeway on the on ramp. :) Glad no one was cruising down that ramp at 50 MPH. We found a way around and got home safely around 7pm.

So basically, Jackson spent all day in the car with very little time to run around. Jenny said it was a bust, but it was nice to have time to talk to her, even if we didn't get the nice relaxing beach day I had wanted.

Maybe next time we'll remember to check wind speed before we leave.


Current mood: disappointed

Custom. Made. Game. Tables.

I ran into this site today thanks to Geek and Sundry, and I about danced out of my seat.

Enter GeekChic - custom furniture, mainly gaming tables, for geeks/nerds/whatevs. I'm just sayin' - these are so totally awesome, I can't even believe it. Expensive as all get out, but holycrap awesomely worth it. 

I have set a personal nerdgoal - own one of these puppies, totally decked out. I want it to be able to handle a game of Arkham Horror with all expansions present, a pen'n'paper tabletop game of D&D (or other RPG), any variety of wargaming (I mentioned Age of Renaissance a little bit ago), card gaming, what-have-you.

Ohmanohmanohmanohmanohman.

Wantwantwantwantwantwant.


Current mood: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

A Successful Class!

I taught my Train the Trainer class today for the first time, and it went fantastically wonderful. I had some excellent feedback, but this planted some very good seeds for my career growth. Everyone gave glowing praise (one person said it was the best remote training they've ever had), and I got some good suggestions on how to improve it as well.

I had planned on it taking between 2.5-3 hours, but we were done at 2 hours, which gives me a little more leeway to add in more interactive sections. Some of the principles get a little long in the tooth - too much talky, not enough interacty. Add in some practice sessions and other types of class engaging activities, and this class will start to show some real polish!

I do so love training. Every time I finish a class, I practically bounce out of the room (or off the phone in this case of remote training). I just feel so stinkin' lucky to be in a job that I get energized in. 


Current Mood: accomplished

Life's a beach

OK, so I think it's going to happen this time. I have some flextime worked up and so I am taking off next Friday completely. Our plan is to leave early enough in the morning that we get to enjoy a whole day at the beach, and still make it home before Mr and Mrs Can't-Drive-At-Night-Because-We-Fall-Asleep-On-The-Road start to have problems.

I am so excited for this, I am practically bouncing around. Add the excitement for the house (closing on May 3, moving in May 12!), and I feel like I'm walking around going "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!" all day every day.

I feel like my whole life has been so stinkin' hard (moved 40 times after leaving home at 18, and NOT because I joined the military - 11 of those have been in the past 8 years of marriage - struggling with school, job, relationships, money, just...everything), it's nice to have so many wonderful things happen all at once, so I'm generally pretty darned happy. Add these two cool things and my ENFP nature is just going "Wheeeeeeeeee!" every time I step out the door.

Yep yep yep. Life is good.


Current mood: bouncy

Parenting is HARD

I love language. I love talking. I love dialoguing. But I am completely unsure what to do when a child is too young to truly access any of those. 

I know how to love and serve and play. But how do you tell a 2 year old to not hit when they can't/won't listen and the problem may be a deeper one anyhow? And when disciplining like time outs seem to be counter-productive, ie, they make him more angry and resentful rather than calm and remorseful?

It feels as though when I am robbed of words, I have no tools, and that's a problem when you're a parent. It's frankly why I dreaded my calling in church to the nursery. I ended up liking it, mainly because that's where I learned to play and enjoy time with the little kids, and I didn't have to worry overmuch about whether they truly understood me. I didn't have to teach them life lessons and love them simultaneously.

Argh. I don't like feeling this stuck. 

I almost want to fast forward to age 5, and then go from there. I hear parents complaining about the teenage years, but I am pretty darn excited for them - just think of all the neat things I'll be able to do with my kids by then! It's these pre-language years that are killing me.


Current mood: frustrated

Yet Another Birthday

So I turned 38 on Wed. I didn't make a big deal about it since it wasn't the 4-0. What that happens, I'll be going into work with a bullhorn announcing that I'm turning 40 and gifts can be placed in the cube next to me. And any gifts worth less than $100 may be subject to regifting unless they are extremely cool.

But since that's still 2 years away, we just had a nice relaxing birthday at home. No party, just me and the fam. We'll be going out to eat with some close friends on Saturday, but that's it. I got home that evening (the day I finished my class) tired, but happy. Jenny had wanted to make me a nice meal, but since Jackson had been a pill all day, she wasn't able to get anything done, so we went out to eat. We picked up some taco bowls from Taco Cabana, then went next door to the McDonald's and ate while letting Jackson play in the playground.

Yup, we are that kind of people.

When we got home, Jenny ran in and got my gifts situated in our room while I stayed outside with Jackson. She finally called me in and I opened our door, greeted by this sight:



Yes, those are two skeletons in our bed, holding hands. Probably one of the best birthday gifts ever.

See, Halloween is one of my fav holidays, and now that we are getting a house, I get to decorate. She picked them up at a garage sale. :)

But the best part occurred while I was admiring the skeletons: Jackson, who just had Christmas and his second birthday in March, saw my wrapped gift on the bed. He wasted no time hopping up and tearing into it. Before I realized what was going on, he had almost completely finished opening it up (a melting clock), and by then, I was laughing so hard that I had to let him finish. He knew exactly what to do with a wrapped gift. :)

And then I busted out a little gift for Jenny (I flubbed her birthday, the details of which will remain forever unblogged) and gave her a birthday present from me - a card game called No Thanks! Quick, fun, and great for a group, large or small. She was very happy. And while we hugged, Jackson got busy again:



He is quite happy under there.

After this, we got him to bed and talked and watched a couple of shows before going to bed. All very relaxing!


Current mood: One Year Older

Being Happy - Patience

One of the keys of living a happy life is found in the phrase, "Expectations are premeditated resentments". We talk all the time about how we expect someone to do this, or expect them to say that (whether in business or personal lives, it's the same), and when they don't, we get angry, hurt, depressed, etc.

While I could have a whole post dedicated to just that concept, and how dropping expectations in general and turning to something other than expectations can help you be happy (and I just might do that at a later time), I am thinking specifically about the time-based element of life. When we don't get what we want when we want it, it creates a whole new experience. Even if we get what we wanted later, that experience can be tainted by the resentment built up by not getting it when we wanted it.

Being willing to accept where we are at in life and any progress towards goals as worthy of celebration brings true happiness. Patience is the essence of being willing to wait for wonderful things. We may never get the wonderful things we wanted in the first place (just ask any infertile couple who wanted children of their own), but that's for another post on gratitude.

Someone who is patient is able to look forward with anticipation to a future event without an expectation attached to a certain timeframe. I may like it more if I get it sooner, but at the end of the day, I am satisfied to wait until it comes. Patience does not imply fatalism, or encourage sitting around and waiting rather than working hard towards a goal, it simply is an acceptance of the time factors outside of your control.

There are so many things in life that we desire, and we get a very small amount of these at any given moment, so an impatient person will see all the unachieved belongings or events or what-have-you with building resentment rather than focusing on the wonderful things they have right there. Happiness is resisting resentment, and accepting the timeframe that life imposes through patience. Patience grants peace of heart in spite of disappointment due to temporal complications.

Patience spares us stress while waiting for what we want in life. Doing otherwise spoils our happiness in the present moment.


Current mood: patient

Death by Powerpoint, Redux

I mentioned way back here about my Train the Trainer class. As of today, it is done, and I am more than pleased. This is seriously good stuff. Several trainer friends and colleagues have gone through it and given it very high marks, even going so far to say that this is exactly what we need.

Anyhow, I was messaging my boss about it, and told him that I felt like doing an old, classic style Toyota jump right in the middle of Cubeville to celebrate. He told me to "do it!"

So I did it. I actually jumped a couple of times and made excited noises, and everyone turned and looked at me. One of the other managers asked if I had missed my dose for the day. :)

Someone else suggested that I do a Tom Cruise and jump up on the chair/couch. Harder to do since there is no couch, and all the chairs are swivel chairs. I envision that as:

"YesWHOOPS!"CRASH"OUCHDANGIT"

Anyhow, today, my career took a major step forward. Happy birthday to me!

I am man, hear me roar. 


Current mood: Exultant

Life Update Round Up!

So here's a bunch of smaller updates all in one shiny, easy-to-read package!

Overheard:


Last Christmas, our church asked me to be Santa for the Christmas party. Since we weren't sure Jackson would be comfortable sitting on Santa's lap, we let him watch me get dressed, and we even used the suit for some cute Christmas eve pics at home.

So today, he was looking at the Night Before Christmas book given to him by my folks, with a picture of Santa on the cover. I was standing there when Jenny pointed to the picture and asked him, "Who is that?", fully expecting him to say, "Santa!", but he pointed at me and said, "Daddy!"

LOL.

We have some work to re-mystify Santa with our child, it seems.

Dreams:


Neither of these deserved their own post, but last night I dreamed about Mitt Romney. I was working with him in some way, and I recall asking him some (what I felt were) hard questions. I have *no idea* what those questions were. :)

A couple of nights ago, I dreamed about the End of the World! The land was sinking into the ocean, and I needed to quickly jump onto land that was not sinking so as to not go down with it, but each time I landed, that land started sinking as well. If it sounds like a video game where you try to jump quickly past sinking platforms, that's because it's what it felt like. :) I made the last jump to safety and was somehow knocked out. When I awoke, it was three days later, and somehow, despite most of the world sinking into the ocean, all our infrastructure (cell phones, electricity, running water, etc) was up and running. The little island where I was had both Jenny and Jackson there, plus what remained of BYU campus. I am unsure if this was the remainder of BYU-Hawaii, or BYU-Provo, but it suuuuuuure was small....

Not much to the End of the World, really - no tidal waves or storms or plagues, just sinking platforms of land. At least now I know what will happen in December of this year. Working on my jumping skills as we speak.

Just the Two of Us, Redux:


Jackson did great during his first morning with Momma away. He cried for a little while, and then got better. When Jenny called to talk to him, he was fine when she hung up, or was too busy elsewhere to talk to her (that made me laugh!).We had a blast at the park, and he *loved* the little farm petting zoo. I loved that he had no fear of these much larger animals coming right up to him looking for food, like the sheep and llamas. However, he had no desire to ride the pony, so his courage had limits, evidently.

The little stinker only took a 30 minute nap, so I was unable to clean or shower or read or anything, though. I've never doubted how much Jenny does while I am work, but knowing how much attention Jackson needs, AND she can get anything at all done during the day gets my utmost respect. It does underscore how poorly I multitask. :)

Work:


Holy cow, work. It's picking up like crazy. I am getting so busy during the day that I have little time for anything else. Just finished a whole month of new hire training, getting ready to head up training on a worldwide project rolling out the ITIL processes (designed to optimize Service Desk management and Operations), plus several new clients rolling in that will require my attention as well. As well as the fact that I have been asked to head up the training for all the North American delivery centers. Since I'm just one guy, I mentioned to my boss that they will need to bring in someone else if they want all of this done right.

I mentioned in an earlier post concerning my Train the Trainer class - it is 98% finished, and I am immensely pleased with it. I hope it gets implemented on a larger scale than just our ITIL rollout and the Service Desk new hire.

Current mood: Busy

I love the little miracles

Around Tuesday, I noticed my thumb drive, normally attached to my keychain (and attached for the last 2 years), was missing. It was not loose in my pocket, nor was it in the pocket of any of my other pants. I didn't worry about it since I figured it would turn up in a couple of days when we moved things around.

But it didn't show up.

I have some personal data on that thing, so by last night, I was quite worried. I never ever let Jackson play with my keys because I like to know where they are at all times, and little kids have a tendency to lose (or break) important items they are allowed to play with. I scoured the house, the cars, our room, and nothing. I was hoping it didn't fall out of my pocket when I pulled my keys out somewhere, but I just didn't know where it could be.

So last week, my lower back and right at the base of my skull were hurting really bad - I went to my chiropractor for an adjustment on Monday. He said that if my back still hurt by Wed to call him and come in again on Friday (this morning). When I went to the gym on Wed, I noted that my lower back did indeed still hurt bad, so I scheduled an appt for this morning.

It wasn't until I was on the way there that I realized I might have lost it there, so when I walked in, I asked him if he or anyone else had found a thumb drive. He shook his head, so I went to the waiting area until he called for me. He walked in a couple minutes later and asked me what it looked like - small, flat, silver, doesn't look like a thumb drive since it folds in. He nodded, and said he had found it, but had thrown it away since he didn't know what it was. Lucky for me, the garbage goes out on Fridays, so we were able to locate it fairly quickly.

If my back hadn't still been hurting on Wed, I would not have thought to ask him about it until after today, after the garbage was gone and the drive was out of reach. Gratitude even for the seemingly negative things in our lives is a good thing. :)

PS - I am soooooo going to secure my personal data somewhere else.....


Current mood: Thankful

Just the Two of Us

For Christmas, I gave Jenny a Day Off - 24+ hours away with some of her girlfriends where I take care of Jackson. With all the stress she's been under, it seemed like a great gift to give.

Well, she's cashed it in for the next 1 1/2 days - she left today at noon:30 and will return tomorrow evening, exact hour unknown, but definitely after Little Man has gone to bed. I'm frankly super excited for two reasons: 

1. She reeeeaaaalllly needs the break. Really really. There are so many things she's been struggling with recently that to have some time off with two of the three ladies she loves the best in Texas (sadly, one of them, from Dallas, couldn't make it) will be a delightful rejuvenation. 
2. I reeeeaaaalllly need some Daddy time with Jackson. Really really. Being gone so much is hard, and it's heartbreaking for every dad when their kids run out sobbing as they pull away in the car, but lucky me - I get to have that experience 2x/day. Once when I leave in the morning, and once when I leave to see clients at night. I can tell that he gets mad at me for being gone, and so having this dedicated time is going to be a blast.

There's going to be several fun activities:

1. He's napping right now, but as soon as he's up, we're heading to a park.
2. Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner! (still a maybe, but leaning that way)
3. We picked up a Groupon for a local petting zoo, which will be first on the docket tomorrow morning.
4. Shopping, which he enjoys doing with us
5. Lots of playing with toys and reading books.

And in the meantime, I get to read a bunch of books for my Dale Carnegie class, plus the homework, clean the house, do dishes, wash clothes, and all the other fun stuff so that she comes home to a clean, stress-free house, which is part of the gift. Anticipating a horribly messy home is not a good way to enjoy time out, ya know?

Anyhoo, I hear him calling, so it's time to head 'em up and mooooooooove 'em out!


Current mood: Excited

Being Happy - Accepting Emotion

Emotion drives everything we do, and I do mean everything. Logic is important, but logic itself has no power to bring us to a new place and create change. Just look at all the people who are dying of heart disease that know they need to change their diets in order to live, but refuse to do so. Logic says, "Eat right or die", and they respond with, "I care less about dying than I do about eating whatever I want, whenever I want."

In other words, logic only moves us when we care enough to move on it.

I saw a sci-fi movie once (not giving the name to avoid spoilers - those who have seen it will know what I'm talking about) where the characters land on a planet that has dead people just sitting in cars, at desks, lying on the street, etc. No violence was committed anywhere. They discover that the government of the solar system was experimenting with a drug to make the population more docile, but it succeeded so well, they were stripped of all emotion. They literally starved to death, knew they were starving to death, but simply did not care enough to do anything about it.

If we were stripped of emotion, we would do the same. Unfortunately (or fortunately, rather), negative emotion brings a lot of pain. Who likes to feel betrayed or depressed or angry or sadness or grief? All of these emotions are unpleasant, but what's more, when they hit, our brain shuts off and we lose some of our higher thinking functions. Fight or flight literally pulls blood from the brain and into the heart, and so we make stupid mistakes. The things we say when we are angry are almost always not things we would say when we were calm. Arguments and debates are often lost by the person who lets their emotion get the better of them.

Our reaction to negative emotions are often to clamp down on them, hard. We don't want to feel those things, so we do our level best to bury them deep enough that they rarely push up into conscious thought. However, this approach also removes our ability to feel joy and happiness. Emotion is emotion, and if I reject the hard and painful emotions, I also reject the profound and enjoyable ones. Addictions often emerge as a substitute for genuine positive emotion - pleasure certainly feels good, but it is hollow, lacking the ability to make us a better person.

Not that we should swallow our negative emotions whole because that would be akin to burning my hand on the stove and not removing it. I feel pain because I am damaging myself in some way, and negative emotions provide the same warning - we are doing/saying/thinking/believing something that is damaging to us, and it needs to be solved. But when I accept the role that negative emotion brings to the table and use it as impetus to solve my problems, I also open the door for true happiness, love, gratitude, and the whole host of positive emotions to reign in my life as well. 

If I cut off negative emotion because I don't like suffering, I compound my suffering, for I also cut off true joy.

In fact, when I accept the proper role of negative emotions in my life, as symptoms of a deeper problem in me that needs to be fixed, then I am driven towards deeper and richer happiness in my life. 

If you want to be happy, accept the role of emotion in your life, painful and joyful both.


Current mood: happy to be sad

Gaming

I have always loved games - board games, card games, computer games, role-playing games, etc. I grew up with D&D and Risk, and as an adult, I have enjoyed a larger variety of games.

I have often tried to hold Game Days - a Saturday 2-3x/year where we get a bunch of guys over and play either a single long game or a bunch of shorter games. It often goes for 8-12 hours. But since my new work schedule takes up almost every single Saturday, I have gone over a year without a single game day, and I am missing it. Not that I regret spending the time with my family instead of a Game Day, because that's the most important thing, especially with me gone so much, but I so rarely get to read a book for fun, play a game with friends/family, or anything of the sort that I do miss it.

As much as I enjoyed D&D in the past, I admit it holds less fascination for me now - I always enjoyed the story part more than anything else, and the last one-shot adventure I tried to run ended up being a great short story, but a terrible adventure. I've found I love delving into the hearts and minds of the characters more than an RPG allows, which is why I'm heading the writing route instead of the RPG route. 

Probably my favorite game is an obscure one called Age of Renaissance by Avalon Hill. It's out of print, and a single copy will run up to $200 on Amazon, so I'm glad I grabbed it when it was only ("only" - ha!) $80 several years ago. It's like the computer game Civilization (it's actually the sequel to the board game Civilization based on the computer game), so the game play has all kinds of technology advances to research, each one bringing a distinct advantage to the person getting it. One game can take up to 12 hours, and I love every minute of it.

Some of our other favorites include Munchkin, BANG! (spaghetti western card game), Jokers, and a relatively recently discovered Carcassonne. The last is fabulous because it's one of the few games we've found that is still really fun with just 2 players. 

Jenny doesn't like the longer games as much as I do (read: she doesn't like them at all), so I'll go years between playing Settlers of Catan (with the Knights and Cities expansion), Starfarers of Catan, or Age of Renaissance. We agree on a lot of other games when we do play, so it's not so bad.

But today I find myself missing Game Day. It's a necessary sacrifice, and one I make willingly, but still. Someday, Game Day, someday, we will find each other again.

Current mood: Melancholy

Tags: geekyness, life update