Why Vegas?

Marc is already in Vegas. We’ve been planning to live in the same city at the same time for awhile. He’s a family member that I met about ten years ago for the first time. As you can guess we’re part of a large family, spread out across the US.

Marc’s an Artist and he’s currently working as a Tatoo Apprentice in Vegas. He’s airbrushed t-shirts for Disney and Knotts Berry Farm, murals and motorcycles. How does that tie-in with what I do? Anybody's guess and the sky is the limit. I know a little, and sometimes more, about a lot of things.

I’m going with an open mind. I truly love the nitpickyness of programming – I was a COBOL programmer in a former life and now I do websites and blog. We’ll see what happens as I get ready to depart Abilene and head west.

If you’re wondering how I ended up in Abilene, I’ll tell you that I only came for a visit since my daughter and her family are here, but she wanted me to stay. I think she was actually just going through a challenging time and it looks like that all got settled down and she and her husband are going to work things out.

I’ve been here for about 3 months and that’s long enough for me to know that I won’t get into any trouble here in Abilene and that’s just a little too peaceful for me. I spent that last two years in my home state of Michigan and before that lets just say, Dallas primarily with temporary contracts in states from Alaska to Florida.

I plan to keep you posted as I get ready to leave here in about ten days. Lots of last minute preparations and planning for the unknown.

Countdown to Vegas

I’m in Abilene, TX, preparing to leave in about ten days. I’ll be heading for Las Vegas for the first time. I’m not a gambler nor a drinker so we’ll see what other trouble I can get into.

I want a Google Chrome Notepad!!!

Techsoup sends some great posts to me and yesterday brought a cool surprise, an opportunity to beta test Google’s new Chrome Notepad. I’ve been most happy with Chrome since installation a few months ago. I’d made the switch from IE awhile back and was trying out other browsers, but was most pleasantly surprised when I followed a friend's suggestion to try Chrome. The issues that I had were resolved, plus Chrome’s speed.

Chrome is so much faster and I like the fact that all my home pages are listed across the bar and available with one click rather than taking the time to download every one when I might not need them all every day.

Bringing up a new tab provides an instant image of all my home pages as they last appeared and a single click from anywhere will bring up one of them fresh. Now, instant web with a Chrome Notebook! Google features are listing the time from sleep to boot in ten seconds, I like that.

Everything stored in the cloud means that everything is still available no matter what happens to my laptop. No risk of data loss. As a graduate student I find classmates who email their documents to themselves at the end of every session, those who save their works in progress on a flash drive and those who actually print to protect themselves against loss of their precious work. Many have made the switch over to Google Docs so they’ve gotten used to storing their work in the Cloud.

Wireless technology means independence and the Chrome Notebook provides an always-connected situation with fast WiFi available everywhere. No more looking for hot spots, fooling with a plug-in or waiting til I get home. I won’t have to carry a phone and a laptop to have the best of both worlds.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed, pick me!! I want to beta test a Google Chrome Notebook!!!

Dallas

I’m in Dallas and the weather is fine! I think I got out of Michigan just in time; the first snow of the year was beginning to fall a few weeks ago as I was leaving. Now, the worst winter snow in ten years has hit as the area I’m visiting is experiencing 50-70 degree weather.

Finishing up a term paper on Second Life and how the virtual world is being used by librarians… very interesting~

I’m currently looking around for some work in graphics or website development. The work I performed last summer in Michigan was most enjoyable and while I would like to visit there again next summer, I do need to keep busy and Dallas definitely has the edge.

It’s good to be here, visiting old friends and familiar places. Oh, if I could only find a job or a contract, I’d probably settle right back in.

Michigan will always be in my heart as my native home. However, I never planned to return except for summer visits after leaving years ago. I almost stayed this time. I was in Michigan for two years, due to some family business I had to take care of. I’ll always visit in August but financially, I’m probably better off in Dallas.

I care

If you’ve ever been in any kind of a therapy situation, you know the value of the ‘right’ question. I was asked one of those yesterday. I heard it coming as I was talking with a new friend and was invited to ask any questions that I had. My initial response was to reply that this wasn’t a job interview and I didn’t have a prepared list of questions, although I had recently had this assignment in a class situation and did have a few ready. I asked, “What are your goals?” knowing that as the response came, the question would likely be turned back on me. Although I was listening to the answer I was being given, my mind considered what I would reply… I planned something along the lines of the web work that I most enjoy. However, when the question came, these words fell out of my mouth: “To run a non-profit”.

Oh my, who planted those words in my mouth? Those of you who know me well will know my response is God’s plan for me. I guess maybe it is. My mind flashed back to spring and summer of 2009 as the most important thing on my mind was establishing AgeOut.org, a non-profit organization for teens who age-out of Foster Care. What happened? I wondered.

Life itself, or God as I choose to believe, needed me to physically change locations. By the end of that summer, the organization was not first and foremost on my mind, rather moving was. The next year propelled me from the east side of the state to the west. On the surface I had my reasons, blah, blah, blah. I also found another organization with the same focus, just not all my ideas. My idea was on hold until I determined whether it would be better to just support them with their organization.

This morning I have a glimmer of a reason. Complex, coincidentally, all those coincidences where God chooses to remain anonymous, but I choose to think of as Miracles. Going back into the business plan, I remembered, Western Michigan University is the location of several organizations that had sparked my interest because of their focus on teens facing homelessness based on their looming 18th birthday.

In Kalamazoo, Mich., Western Michigan University began a scholarship program last September for 51 students leaving foster care without support. Using a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, it offers free tuition, academic help and year-round housing. Foster-care teens become homeless and often hopeless, however help is available if they know about it.

Surprise, surprise, I have ‘another’ reason to go to Kalamazoo this week. I think I’ll stop by WMU and see who I might meet.

I smile as I see God’s handiwork as it all comes together.

First Snow

Last Thursday was it. I’ve heard this is an early date for the beginning of the season but the last two winters I’ve been here I’ve had other things on my mind besides recording the date and the years I grew up here are just a distant memory. So, I’ll accept local opinion and consider it an early start.

But it’s here! I actually love the first snow. Favorite memories of the first sight of those glimmering flakes make it a great day for me. Whether I’m inside by the fire, walking, driving as I was this year or leaving the grocery store, the vision always stirs me.

The image on the right is the last snow of the year, my first winter season back in Michigan after so many years. The picture was taken in April of 2009. I didn’t know, although I really expected, it would be the last snow. But it was just so beautiful I couldn’t resist.

Beautiful Fall Day

Greetings and welcome to the world of change. Seems like things are evolving so fast that its hard to keep up with where I am today.

Only answer that works for me is to slow down, take the loads off my back that belong to someone else and give them back, prioritize the items that are mine and breathe.

That's what I'm gonna do today.