Happy Holidays

And I'm back home for the holidays once again. This time, I'm catching up on all of the paperwork that I've been ignoring throughout the year. I've made more progress in the last couple of days than in the last eleven-and-a-half months. For the first time in over a decade, I'm staying home alone, and plan to quietly catch up on household stuff. It may sound a bit boring, but to a road warrior aged by over three million miles, I think I've deserved a little peace and quiet -- for now.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all, and until next time . . .

See ya.

Shifting Gears

Sliding into a new career isn't supposed to be as easy as stepping into a new pair of pants, but I think I've found an exception. I've had a lot more time on my hands with several ground assignments since moving back into the world of management. As I'm now a part-time road warrior, I decided to try my hand in the world of podcasting. It's kind of weird to have a producer credit, and even weirder to have produced a couple of shows, with almost twenty episodes completed, and several more in production. As the producer and host of both programs, my time on the blogosphere has been a bit limited. As the new media starts to take shape, there's a need for a lot more content out there. It's gratifying to see that I've had more downloads of my shows in the last few months than traffic to my website in the last few years, but if I still have some readers out there I will continue to post my rants here in the blogosphere as well. See ya.

Back In Time

Once again, it's time to move those clocks. This time, we're moving the clocks one hour backward. How's that for time travel? Anyhow, daylight savings time has always been a challenge for me. Most of my life had been spent without having to worry about changing clocks twice a year. But, it's always welcome to get that other hour back at the latter part of the year. For most people, that means an extra hour of sleep. However, to me, it just means that I have a little time to catch up on the good old fashioned blogs. The podcasts have taken up a lot more of my free time lately, but rest assured, I'll still be around the good old-fashioned blog. It's amazing how fast times change... See ya.

Freedom Revisited

Once again, we celebrate Constitution Day, and not to give up on tradition, this is my annual post in celebration and reflection of that important date in history. It's been 219 years since that day in 1787, and a little more than five years since our freedoms have been challenged by extremists. We remain strong and I belive we are even stronger for surviving through these trying times.

I believe I also used this opportunity last year to get on my soapbox about getting involved in your community by finding a way to help out by volunteer work. Many volunteer organizations are coordinating volunteer projects this month in many metropolian areas. Now's the time to help, and there's never been a greater need.

May you all have a Happy Constitution Day! Let freedom ring, and all patriots please rise!

See ya.

It Adds Up To Zero

Getting back from vacation is never easy. I always thought that it was the objective to get as much vacationing done in as short of a time that was possible. I'm back to work, and back on the road as of tomorrow. Though, I can't seem to pull myself back into work mode -- a problem I've had since late-May. I must say that the net result of all of the vacationing has resulted in no change to the stress level, no change to the blood pressure, and no change to the feeling of relaxation. In short, it all adds up to zero.

See ya.

Added Sound Effects

I've been producing podcasts for the last month, and it's been a lot of fun. My first show hasn't made it to the air yet, as I need to wait for approval by the volunteer organization to get started with the first post. However, I have managed to get my road warrior show off the ground, and it's been really fun. The folks at Liberated Syndication made it really easy to get started. If you have a show to produce, I highly recommend them. Anyhow, I'm hoping to get my other show off the ground later this week. Now that I've gotten the hang of this, I think I can make it work. Maybe it's time to start that radio career... Ha!

See ya.

Can't Help Them All . . .

I'm in the middle of a lot of volunteer projects these days. I've started to become painfully aware of my own physical limitations these days. Now more than ever. I wasn't able to carry a few heavy boxes for a relatively short distance without asking for some help. Maybe I've got to do a little more on the administrative side on the volunteer projects, and a cut back a little on the manual labor. The minor aches and pains are starting to become a bit more persistent, but I'm not ready to give up just yet. I'm not quite ready to accept the fact that I can't do it all. Even though I can't help everyone, I can still give it a try. See ya.

Keeping With The Times . . .

I've been keeping up my various blogs and websites for over five years now, and I'm considering the fact that it may be time to move into the world of the new media. There are just too many cool tools out there to move forward with a different type of message. So, I'll keep up the Blog of The Road Warrior for a little while longer, but I'm starting on my first Road Warrior Podcast. Coming soon to RSS feed near you.

See ya.

Total Systems Failure

I was reminded recently that I am not indestructible. In the last couple of weeks, I decided to put a lot of extra stuff into the schedule, and I found that I have not only exceeded my limitations, but I think I may have hit some sort of magical limit that causes total systems failure. I just popped over to Hawaii for the weekend to attend my cousin's graduation party. During that time, it amazed me that very little activity caused all sorts of new and exciting pain in places that I didn't even know I had. I'm attributing this to the flu, but maybe it's time to really start slowing down a little. For real, this time... See ya.

Crossover

I usually was pretty good about keeping different facets of my life as separate entities. The only thing that crossed between those different worlds was me. Keeping my work life, volunteer activities, friends, family, and blogger life as separate entities just seemed normal. In the last few months, that separation seems to be harder to maintain. I just got both of my volunteer agencies talking to each other to collaborate, and am working with my company to support some of those volunteer initiatives. I've gotten some of my friends working with me toward some of those volunteer projects, and my colleagues from the past have sought me out to perhaps return to my old industry. I've also got expanded responsibilities at both my work and volunteer projects.

I'm not sure what the future will bring, but one thing's for sure -- the next few months will be a very interesting ride. I'm off to a family thing for the weekend, and I've got some time on the road coming up after that. I just can't get enough of this, I guess... See ya.

Minor Setback

I'm in the middle of a trade show in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, the events of the last few weeks caught up with me, and I'm not feeling that well. There's nothing worse than having to put on your "game face" during a trade show when you are feeling like passing out every few minutes. I've got one more day for the show, and I was going to do some sales calls and other stuff on Tuesday, but I'm thinking that I might need to use the day to recuperate before the trip home. I've never had to do this before, but this has been a year of firsts... See ya.

Restarting The Engines

I've been trying to get myself back into work mode for the last couple of days. Vacationing on-and-off for the last month has slowly edged me into a permanent leisure mode. I can't seem to get motivated to stay late at work any more. For the first time, I seem to be experiencing a consistent lack of concentration, commonly referred to as daydreams. I guess the vacation in Washington wasn't long enough. Since I've got a couple of trips planned over the next couple of weeks, I'll defer restarting the engines until after the long holiday weekend. Hope nobody notices until then... See ya.

Between The Generation Gap

In my travels, I have seen an interesting gap between the generations created predominantly by technology. The tech generation gap, as noted by several sources has been a notable source for the differences between the generations. The strange part of this is that I fall somewhere between the generations. My young friend James told me that I'm a bridge between the generations. However, that does mean that I really don't fit into either mold. You see, I have the technical knowledge to bestow upon both generations. The younger generation can more readily embrace the technology than the older generation. I just introduced James to the world of VoIP and video conferencing. It was really cool to see him totally integrate the terminology and technology into his life within the span of 24 hours. I don't think that would happen in the older generation. I guess I truly am the anomaly. To some degree, I've been accepted by both generations, and I can identify with both. See ya.

Moody

I probably don't change my mood icon enough. I did manage to change it today. Due to potential changes in the job situation, I'm feeling a little perplexed. When changing moods, you can also see the mood of the internet. It usually shows that the internet seems to be tired a lot. When servicing millions and millions of customers on a regular basis, I guess it should be kind of tired most of the time. Ok, I'm starting to ramble a bit. I guess that means I'm tired, too. Maybe I should change that mood again. Then again, I am still perplexed. Maybe I should change it to undecided... See ya.

The Inner Geek

Lately, I've been getting back in touch with my inner geek. Maybe I've been spending a little too much time at Best Buy, but I decided that it was time to upgrade quite a few things. Hey, I'm still using my old typewriter every now and then, so I thought it would be a good thing to start making decent use of my printer again -- even with labels, envelopes, and other hard-to-print stuff. Then it was time to upgrade disk storage. After all, 20 GB was plenty a couple of years back. These days, I can fill that in a really short time with podcasts. So, now it's time to upgrade the storage and network as well. Getting back to my network engineer roots is kinda fun. After getting all of the stuff together, I found that I could actually make it all work. So now who's the geek? Yep, it's me! I've still got it. See ya.

The Missing Link

It seems that the creative outlet for most people revolves around that part of their life that seems to be absent most of the time. When you think about it, why would anyone want to watch a movie that defines their daily routine? In order to truly make what little recreational time worthwhile, I think we all seek that missing link. I'm probably the farthest thing from an action hero that you can find. Therefore, I think I'll be busy watching the Die Hard trilogy for now... See ya.

Consistent Anomaly

I've said it before, and I'll likely say it many times over -- The more things change, the more things stay the same. A few months back, I decided to enter the world of modern times, and got myself an iPod, and started to actually get a little more organized. Yes, I'm still blogging the old-fashioned way, and I don't see video blogging or podcasting in my future at this time. I've always been an anomaly -- old-fashioned with just a bit of modern day thrown into the mix. Now that's the ultimate oxymoron -- a consistent anomaly.

Onward to my personal life... I managed to clean up the office, only to totally trash it because I needed to meet the tax deadline. I made it just in time, as usual, with a lot of help this time around. After a six-month hiatus, I started back to work at one of my volunteer jobs at one of the local museums. This time, I've got an outdoor project that involves a lot of hiking. Sometimes, it's all about stretching a bit beyond what you normally expect of yourself and breaking through those misconceptions that others may have about you. Yes, I'm actually doing the hiking, and it's been kind of nice. And yes, my legs still feel like they are made of Jello or some other similar substance.

So, have I filled in the void left by the lack of travel throughout the last few months? I think I've sufficiently filled up the calendar locally, but I think there are still a few more places to go, and people to see. Even after a decade of life on the road, I'm still thinking that there are a few more adventures out there. That other blog of mine isn't quite dead yet.

See ya.

Open Season

In the past several months, I've written about procrastination. Well, once again, I'm closing in on the middle of April, and the tax season descends upon me like a ton of bricks. Most people have a much easier time doing their taxes, but it is one of those things that I have never quite mastered, so I always hire an accountant to do mine. If I were a bit smarter, I would have prepared a bit more for this day, but I find myself staying up climbing my mountain of receipts and forms. It could be worse, I suppose. Although, I can't really think of anything worse that this right now. Ok, I guess it's time to continue this all-nighter. See ya.

What Dreams May Come

Dreams can be great things, if you can manage to get them. I'm continuing my sleepless adventures in San Diego. With the odd sleep patterns that I keep lately, I'm not getting to the point where my mind is relaxed. Therefore, the dreams (or nightmares) are really not happening as they normally would. And it's time now for me to sleep, perchance to dream. Now that's the stuff dreams are made of. . . Cliche overload.

See ya.

Sleepless In San Diego

Someone recently asked me how I am able to sleep at night with all of the stuff that has been going on in my life. My standard response has been, "Sometimes, not very well." Well, that holds true tonight, once again. I can't remember where I heard about those three phases in life: Rule the world, Change the world, and What in the world is going on? Well, I've been in Change the world mode for the last several years, but I feel like I'm moving into that final phase with every passing day. Oddly enough, that's what seems to be keeping me up at night these days.

I spent the day attempting to catch up with personal paperwork and other stuff. I'm also thinking about starting up a couple of other personal projects. One of the things that I really need to do is to feel like I'm making a difference. Even with my current volunteer work, I'm not seeing too much of an impact lately. Maybe I'm not quite ready to give up on that Change the world mode. See ya.

Filling The Void

For the last couple of months, I really haven't been myself. No, I haven't morphed into some sort of alien or comic book character or anything like that. Let me qualify my earlier statement. I recently stopped traveling for a living, and settled in to a desk job with limited time on the road. Time management takes on a little different meaning when you are hopping across time zones on a weekly (and sometimes daily) basis. For some reason, when that time pressure is missing, it's not as easy to catch up on all of the mundane things in life. I haven't really been procrastinating to get these things done. There just hasn't been enough time, which is really confusing to me. I guess this will remain one of those unexplained mysteries that we used to hear about from Robert Stack. See ya.

Technology Unleashed

I've been pretty old-fashioned when it comes to just about everything. That's kind of ironic, because I work in the technology field. It's even more ironic that I have chosen the old-fashioned paperwork method of doing many things, instead of the on-line version, because of the fact that I work in the technology field. I know what could possibly go wrong, so I'm the one at the end of the technology adoption curve. Sure, I guess I have a lot more paper to contend with, and it's probably a bit more of a fire hazard. But, at least I know that I can recreate everything when all the technology fails.

Keeping up with all of the things that go on in our lives is a daunting task. I've relied on technology to help out quite a bit, but sometimes you just have to fall back on the old-fashioned calendar. I think it's probably time to convert my personal schedule to the on-line version. You see, my social calendar has been pretty empty for the last several years, so there's not too much risk of total systems failure.

See ya.

Procrastination Revisited . . . Later

There seems to be a pecking order to the mundane activities in life. I've been guilty of procrastination on many fronts. I've been attempting to get my thoughts together for a big speech that I must deliver next week. It's not like I haven't had other things that I need to get done. I decided that I needed to get some laundry done. Then, after a five-month absence, I thought it would be an opportune time to return to the gym for a little exercise. Of course, I really needed to follow that by a quick shopping trip. Don't get me wrong. I really do like writing and delivering these presentations. But like all great procrastinators, I thrive on the last-minute pressure -- or at least I will a little later. See ya.

Extending Days

I've decided that there just aren't enough hours in the day. Beyond that, there really aren't enough days in the week, weeks in the month, months in the year... Shall I go on? Through history, it appears that we really haven't gotten away from the seven-day week. In most cases, we have a distinct set of weekdays, and a couple of days noted as weekends. For people with traditional jobs, the workweek consists of a standard Monday through Friday grind, with weary workers looking forward to the Saturday and Sunday. That's what normal people do.

There have been many words used to describe me, but normal is not one of them. You see, I began my twelve-day work week today. Even though I probably have the most normal job I've ever had in my career, I still have a crazy schedule. That's what keeps everything interesting. One of these days, when I'm ready for the mundane life, I might actually move into the upper echelon and take one of those normal Monday through Friday positions. See ya.

Life Is But A Dream

When you spend a little less than a day in each of six cities, it's possible to get a little confused when you wake up to your ever changing surroundings. It's been a while since I did one of those whirlwind trips. I had a few crazy dreams where I actually woke up and started the day, but in the wrong city. As you can imagine, when I actually woke up, it was a strange experience, to say the least. I remember waking up one day last week in my hotel room, and I had no clue what city I was in, and what I was supposed to do that day. I should have probably given up on sleeping at that point, but with the changing time zones and the time distortion from the long journey, that was just not an option. See ya.

Foolish Though It May Seem

I fell asleep while attempting a blog entry last night. That almost never happens. At least I was able to get up in time for my other plans this morning. I spent some time at one of my volunteer projects earlier today, and I was planning on a quick trip into Los Angeles this weekend. Before I go, I had to spend my day going through endless piles of mail (which stacked up from floor to ceiling, I might add) and other paperwork. It really doesn't really sound exciting, but I finally had to sit down and deal with it because the mail got out of control. I'm doing a couple of loads of laundry at the same time. I don't think I've been up to check in on things in LA for a few weeks, so it will be good to get there if I can fight my way through the rest of this mail. See ya.

Unbalanced

I'm still recovering from that virus or whatever it was back in early-December. In fact, today was the last day of various medications, which is a relief. I'm not exactly back working on all thrusters yet, but I should be back to normal soon, if you could call my regular state-of-being "normal." As usual, the days are always packed, which is probably not unlike the schedule of most people these days. I spent the week on the road for one of those 80-hour work weeks that I've been missing for the last couple of years. Sadly, I found myself back in the office for most of the weekend trying to catch up, even though I've put in way too much time already. There aren't enough hours in the day any more. Though I've seen some interesting programs out there that help to schedule your time and balance your life, I just don't think there is a computer program advanced enough to create those extra hours in the day. Maybe I need to think about inventing that sleep substitute. See ya.

Match Game

I started my career doing a lot of community service work, and everything seems to have returned full circle. Not that I want to get on my soapbox, but if you have some spare time, maybe you ought to give it a try. There are many resources out there, and it's not limited to helping people at hospitals or homeless shelters. I managed to get out to one of the local youth volunteer events today. Even though it was a bit rainy today, it seemed to be a successful event. While I was there, I managed to get signed up for a couple more days of projects, and I might take on another lead position at one of the monthly youth projects. What can I say? It fun, and it does fill the hours. See ya.

Return Of The Blogger

These days, there are way too many blogging tools out there. I started out with a nice, simple web site devoted to the life (or lack thereof) of a road warrior a few years back. Before the days of tools like Blogger, I actually started an editorial page that basically held together my rantings from my days as a full-time road warrior. Well, times have changed, and technology has moved forward. It seems that the website sort of morphed into a multiple blog site. Then I discovered that I had accounts elsewhere that started to offer blogging tools. Well, this stuff can become quite time consuming. After all, there's Xanga, Yahoo!, Myspace, and various other sites out there that offer these tools. And, yes, I am active on a lot of them. Keeping up with too many blogs has become a challenge, but I think it's a great pressure valve. Anyhow, I intend to stay current with at least one blog per week. No guarantees that I'll get to all of them everyday, but I will make an effort to do a few more updates than I have in the last year or two. See ya.

Flashback

I was lost in thought several times today. Perhaps that's where I left my voice. I seem to have misplaced it last night, and have not yet been able to find it. Though with the help of modern medications, maybe I can reclaim it. Strange as it may seem, I'm feeling fine. The only minor irritant is the absence of sound when I'm trying to talk. I'm not one who remembers childhood memories that well these days, but I do seem to recall an event quite similar to this about 27 years ago. It happened in school, and I remember writing everything that day, and I was quite pleased when I was able to spell laryngitis correctly. Hey, that was a big accomplishment for someone in the third grade in the 1970's. It's kind of weird that the strangest things can trigger some of the most crystal clear memories from years past. See ya.

Picking Up The Pieces

Well, the vacation is just about over. I'm not feeling very well at the moment, but there is still a lot of stuff that I need to do before work tomorrow. The house needs to be cleaned, and I have various projects that have to be done by the morning. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly working on all thrusters today. I've always been able to switch back into work mode without missing a beat, but this is the first time that I'm starting to have a real problem. I got used to being around all my friends for the last month. Now that we're all returning to our "normal" lives, there's a definite empty feeling that remains. It's raining along the Southern California coast today, which is not uncommon for this time of year. It does express the sentiment that it's time to get back out there again. Well, enough of of my babbling for now. Time to clean up. See ya.