Okay, five days later since the day of bad news and here are the phases I’ve been through thus far:

• The “HOLY CRUD WHAT THE HECK I’M I GOING TO DO NOW!!!”
• “I’m pissed off!!!”
• “I’m not worthy!”
• “Why me?”
• “What did I do or didn’t do to deserve this?”
• “What could I have done to have been ‘passed over,’ lamb’s blood?”
• A few sleepless nights.
• Migraines from the lack of sleep and stress.
• “Whatever, I’m just a foreigner in this life anyway.”
• “God, I hate disappointing my wife and kids.”
• “God, I’m at your mercy — please forgive me and have grace for me.”
• “Time to get-r-done!”

So now that I’ve gone through that (which I hope is normal and healthy) I’ve finally put my nose to the “grind stone.”  I’ve schedule my orientation with the free career counseling company provided by my previous employer, filed for unemployment, updated my resume, created a cover letter, updated my facebook profile, my linkedin profile, sent out a few emails to friends and network connection and started to hunt for jobs.

First place: Previous colleagues’ recommend I check out the Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group (rmiug) group on yahoo.  Nothing but Java Developers and DBA positions — doesn’t fit my skill set.

Second place: Craigslist.  Not bad, found a couple leads, but I might have to take a reduction in pay OF ABOUT 20,000 to 30,000, OUCH!!!  Oh wait, this one looks promising…blab, blab, yeah good, blab, great ,blab, OH WHAT, WHAT?!?, “Must be proficient in MYSQL, PHP, Java, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, HTML and CSS. 30K per year plus bonus.”

Okay, I don’t know ANY designer who can programming in PHP or Java NOR do I know any programmer/developer that can be awesome in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.  Hey bonehead, I know you’re on a tight budget like the rest of the start-ups but you’re going to get what you pay for.  My suggestion, hire someone who’s either a good designer who can make your site look good (which might help you to get VC funds) or hire a good programmer who can make your site do awesome stuff (and earn some money to hire a great designer).  In other words, your mix of required skills is like a tuna-fish and peanut-butter sandwich, YUCK!  A designer uses their right brain and a programmer uses their left — just like a brain they are two separate hemispheres that work together as a pair.  Sure there might be some cross-over but they are complete opposites.

Phew, got that off my chest.

Panic!  Is this another phase?  Because these jobs look like entry jobs or they might be start-up companies and the pay is very little.  Looks like I’m going to have to wait tables, stock grocery isles, delivery pizzas, clean offices or something after I get a full-time job just to make ends meet.  That will be healthy!

Maybe I can sell my skin and have advertisers tattoo their ads on me.

• Trying out twitpic http://twitpic.com/13xhj #
• Help, my full-time job isn’t paying the bills (everyones’ raised their rates & I have 4 kids); I’m looking for work (10-15/wk), suggestions? #

• soon grandma will pick up the kids and the wife and I will head out to dinner and then a xmas party; thank God for grandma #

Came across this article today on going vegan and it goes to say that my choice of going vegan is all that more important in regards to my health.

Angela Stokes, 30, lost 160 pounds in two years after she adopted a raw-vegan diet. She now weighs 138 pounds.

Now I don’t need to lose weight per say but I do want to lose the few extra pounds that has given me a spare tire.

Anyway, I have noticed that I don’t have headaches as often and my joints don’t ache anymore (I suffer from a mild version of arthritis brought on by another ailment of mine). Overall, I feel better!

In addition, my wife the other night decided to have chicken for dinner and she confessed to me that the taste of it wasn’t as appealing as it once had. In fact, she even commented, that to a certain degree, that it just didn’t taste good.

I think it’s her body telling her that chicken, or meat in general, isn’t the best thing for her.

Furthermore, the kids are starting to eat more vegetables on their own and enjoying them and my daughter’s eyes and skin seem to look healthier too — no more black circles under her eyes.

Nerf Wars seem to be everywhere nowadays especially in web centric work environments. In fact, at one of my previous jobs it was almost a requirement to carry a nerf side-arm. Unfortunately, I didn’t have one and was left to flinging nerf darts in retaliation like a caveman throwing rocks — it just doesn’t have the same effect.

Now at my new job, not only do I carry my own side-arm (Nerf N-Strike Nite Finder EX-3) but I carry two of them with plenty of amino.

In addition, one of my guns is modified. I’ve removed the air-flow restrictors and have upgraded the spring. Here is a youtube video(or watch below) showing the removal of the air-flow restrictors. You can buy an upgraded spring at Home Depot for about $3.00 (the package I purchased contained two large and two small springs — I just used one of the larger springs).

After removing the air-flow restrictors I was able to gain about a 200% increase, or an extra 20 feet in distance and when I upgraded the spring I was again able to gain an additional 250% increase, or about an extra 60 feet for a whopping total of about 100 feet. That’s a 500% increase over the original 20 feet.

Having this distance has been awesome for keeping your targets at bay or for first strikes without putting yourself in harms way of your opponent. However, my opponents haven’t taking a liking to my gun. I get a lot of “you’re going to poke someone’s eye out with that.” All I have to say is “You’re all a of whiners! There just nerf darts.” Besides my kids can take it and they love the thrill.

Anyway, here’s a cool video of how it should be:

Happy Nerfing.

This past weekend we’re suppose to go camping with my parents and siblings at Boyd lake in Loveland. But the wife is 38 weeks pregnant and her doctor put his foot down because he was concerned that the baby wasn’t getting enough food. In fact he was so concerned that he even called in a specialist to meet with her first thing this morning. Needless to say we had to cancel.

Anyway, but because we were slated to do some family time I got in big trouble for not having a Plan B. I didn’t think it was going to be such a big deal since we did a family thing last weekend with the in-laws and we are planning to do more this coming weekend (western welcome week) I thought I would use the time to catch up on some sleep and work on my side project I’ve been developing.

Point to note (and self), communicate with your spouse your thoughts and get your spouse to do the same with you. That way nobody’s feelings are hurt nor are their expectations.

Oh I should mention we still went out to dinner as a family – here a pic have a happy wife:

Tattoos — art that always has a story

So every since High School I’ve wanted to get a tattoo but I’ve never actual done it because I could never decide on a design let alone a location on my body to put it.

Well now that I’m 33 years of age, married with kids — I have finally decided to do it. In fact, I think I’ve even convinced my wife to get one too.

This time my problem is I want more then just one. Though, I don’t know what it will feel like and wether or not I’ll want to endure the pain multiple times, so we’ll see how far I’ll go.

So What I’m thinking

As I said before, I’ve wanted a tattoo since High School and at the time I thought I would a do a sun with asymmetrical rays of various lengths in the center of my back between my shoulder blades. Though this is still a vary cool design I might want to reserve this for a later date and a different location. So instead I want to do a cross to symbolize my faith as a believer in Jesus Christ. I’m thinking of a more tribal look so that I can extend the design at a later date with a tribal pattern across my shoulder blades and down my arms to a half sleeve length. Furthermore, I would like to somehow include some Hebrew writing around the cross — the writing being a passage from the bible. Here is a picture showing an example tribal pattern across the back: Just image this with a cross and some hebrew writing in the the diamond area right in the middle.

I also want to get a tattoo around my calf with a similar theme as my brother’s tattoo. My brother’s tattoo is that of the Grateful Dead Frisbee Dog in triplicate wrapping around the leg. The first dog is running looking back at the frisbee, the second dog starting to jump up and catch the frisbee, and the third dog with the frisbee in the mouth. But instead of the Grateful Dead Frisbee Dog I’m thinking about having some 1950′s retro robots; think of the movies Iron Giant and Robots.

Lastly, I’m thinking of adding a small tattoo on my chest of a pin-up girl representing my wife with a similar 1950′s retro space/rocket-girl cartoonish look.

Where and When

Well, because I’ve never done this I have no idea what to do or what to expect. Thus right now I’m talking to a lot of people with tat’s to see where’s a good place to go and who’s a good artist. In addition I’m trying to get costs identified as well as what’s involved including the time it will take. Nonetheless, I’m hoping to have a least one before the end of 2008 is over. Finally, I’m also trying to wrap up the design for each.

Any recommendations, suggestions, other feedback?

• At the western welcome week fireworks show with the family #
• trying to figure out what to do today with the kids — something that doesn’t cost an arm and leg and is tons of fun for everyone, humm? #
• 10 days till new baby Moore arrives #

• chilling with the kids today @home #

• rocking out with the kids to rockabilly music #