Been a while (again)

So I know I made a little promise to keep up on this as much as possible.  Sometimes I know it seems like I just might be failing in that respect, but, for my own defense, I really don’t think so.  I think taht everyone gets caught up in life.  I think it may indeed be a fact of it.

Not a whole lot has really happened.  Just ended a nice little traveling spree across the country for work,  Went to Dallas and Reno for a month, then to San Antonio.  After that just the regular at work.  One thing in particular that I’ve made a point in changing though is what I do when I get home from work.

I will admit it, I play WoW.  Or at least, I did.  Within the past week I quit the game actually.  Why?  Because of a couple of reasons.  Mainly it was becoming my life after work.  It always seemed that everything that I did extraneous to work was revolving around it somehow.  I just got tired of the feeling of guilt that came with spending all that time on it and then regretting not spending more.  It just didn’t make me happy.  So I quit.  In fact, not only did I quit, but I made it so that it would be slightly difficult for me to get back into the game.  How did I do that?  I backed up all of my essential data, formatted my hard drive and installed Linux :)

It’s kinda funny really.  I’ve been wanting to do something like this for quite some time now, but always had one reason or another to not go through with it.  I questioned myself a lot when I started the install.  There we a lot of “but…maybe” going on in my head before I did the actaul format, but once I did, it was irreversible.  For that I am glad :)

I for one am going to have to just say that I give a big hand to those involved with the development of the Ubuntu distribution.  They have really leaned up a lot of things since I last tried Ubuntu.  No issues with getting sound to work, or getting my video drivers, and last but not least, a system to automatically obtain all codecs for video/audio files!

Above all of that I am happy about this is that I am actually getting work done now.  I’ve been able to make time to do so many things that I’ve been putting off for far too long.  I currenty have a LAMP stack installed and am slowly putting together a web application for my last job which I hope to sell to them.  It’s all been very nice to see myself so concentrated on the important things again. :)

Write again when I can.

My New Life

I feel kinda bad because I know that I haven’t really been able to write for a long time now.  Its now near the middle of February.  Not much is happening but there are quite a few things going on if that makes any sense.  Soonest two things that are worth mentioning would be that tomorrw the 15th I should be getting both my Tax returns for this last year back as well as (hopefully) get my laptop sold to Branti which is a guy that I’m now working with at my new job.

I guess that I better back up a little bit and explain my new job first:  The company is called Smart City Networks.  They provide telecom services to conventions all across the US.  Currently I am working as a Network Technician for them.  I handle nearly every aspect of the installation and de-installation of network and telephone lines for exhibitors at shows that come to town.  So far I really like the job.  Its giving me a lot of really good experience and most of the people are fantastic to work with.  Currently only a “part-time” employee but I’m still working on average over 45 hours per week if that makes any sense.   Supposedly they are going to see about possibly filling a few open positions for “full-time” technicians before the end of the month which I am very excited about.  I really do hope that I am high on the list for considered candidates as I could really use the bump in pay.

I ahve been working there since early November and have had the opportunity to see some really cool things.  The first really big show that I worked on was CES 2008 which was VERY exciting to see.  Other than just getting front row seats to the shows that come to the Convention Center I’ve had a few other forms of excitement.  The biggest thing was I was at work about a month ago and hurt my back.  I was up in the catwalk pulling cable up from the ground floor.  The cable was very heavy but not too much for me to handle until one of the lines I was pulling snagged.  It jerked me downwards and caused me to pull a few muscles in my lower back.  I actually got rushed to the nearst hospital via ambulance that evening.  It was very painful.  I couldn’t bend over or sit down for several hours after that, and even then (with the aid of some very strong pain killers mind you) it was still very painful.  Right now I don’t even notice anything as its fully healed and I’m back to normal, but that is something I certainly don’t want to do again.

Finally getting back on my feet a little bit as far as money goes.  I don’t make as much as I did at my last job so I’m having to watch myself a lot more as far as spending money but I’m making it.  After this month, I’m actually planning on being able to start putting a good chunk of change back into my brokerage account with TD Ameritrade which i am very excited about.

Lost my Job

Well, I knew that it was going to happen someday, just not now. It all happened a little over a week ago. After the housing market basically crashed in Las Vegas and everywhere else for that matter, Energy Inspectors finally started feeling the crunch of a thinning revenue stream. I met with and sent John several pieces of correspondence to share my own ideas on how the company could situate itself so that we were managing costs more effectively. Unfortunately, a lot of the examples that I used int he process dealt with the upper management in the company, which meant I was accidentally rattling cages that I didn’t mean to. So I got fired.

It wasn’t just me though. Mike also lost his job just an hour before I lost mine. The reasoning for him was slightly different as he had-over the past few months- created a very bad attitude problem for himself. He wasn’t nice to work with in the least.

As far as I go now though I’m not too sure. I’m currently back in MO for the week (actually sitting around the house waiting to be taken to the airport as I write), and so far it hasn’t been very fun. I’ve spent the whole time here just stressing about work. Everyone here wants me to just move back to MO, but I don’t really want to. I feel that I just don’t have the same opportunities here that I do in Las Vegas. I guess I’m going to be playing a very active waiting game when I get back home because I’m not really sure exactly what’s going to happen to me in the short run. I’ve got enough money in savings currently to last me 3-4 months and then (if worse came) I have stuff worth about another month and a half that I could sell. I’m very confident that I will be able to find something before then, but I still want to be prepared fort he worst thing that could happen.

I’ve also decided that I want to enroll in school again when I get back. I have to retake all of the classes that I failed, but I don’t really mind. I’m happy to have the opportunity to go to school now. I’m going to try to go about it a little different though as I really need to concentrate on taking on-site classes as opposed to doing everything online.

I dunno. I guess I’ll just have to write again when I know more about what is going on.

Life Changes

Life for me has changed in a very big way over the past two years since I moved out here to Las Vegas. Live been through a lot, and like to think that I have grown substantially from a lot of the experiences that I have had since then. Some things I am proud of, and others I’d rather not dwell upon. I suppose that that is life though, you have your good moments and your bad moments, but what really does count is what you walk away with from both combined.

I have grown from being a child who depending mostly on everyone else for support in accomplishing everything, into a young, very independent adult. Me perspective has changed on so many things that its hard to believe that I was once just a kids. Some would say that kids are lucky because they don’t really have a care in the world, but after what I know now, I think that that is wrong. I think individuals (that means adults too) who have not yet had the experience of being on their own are truly missing out one one of life’s best learning opportunities. I think the greatest part of that growth comes from inside you. Being independent gives you all the time in the world to really figure out you who are, and what concerns you the most. See, when you’re under the wing of another, you never really do have those worries to their fullest extent which pushes them back. They are nto near the surface and therefore are not exercised which I believe can really hurt you in the long run. To be successfula s a perons you need to be aware of the thigns that are most important to you. You need to have these things in the fore-front of your mind so that you can work on them.

I.E. – Personally, before I moved out, I never concerned myself very much with my finances, and (just as really anyone else under those conditions) almost practically expected everything to just “come together”. This changed drastically when I moved. I became very much aware of my financial needs as a person and came to realize how much I truly do cherish security in the form of proper management of my money. In a period of just a few months, I amassed far more savings than I would have in several years had I achieved the same employment status, but still been living at home. This prompted feelings of pride and accomplishment that further enhanced the rewards. I moved onto doing research into making my money work for me through investments, and eventually I began daytrading small quantities of stocks. I never made much as I didn’t quite have the funds to make “the big bucks”, but in their own special way, the little money I made held a very big place in my heart as an even further individual accomplishment.

Independence drives success. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. :)

My new phone

So Rollin has been out here for a couple weeks now with me. So far I think that he likes it. He’s doing really well at work so as far as being able to save up he should be more than able. It feels really nice to have family around once again as its just been odd these past couple years with being so far away and all.

I just bought myself a brand new cell phone which I’ve done nothing but play with since I got. Since I added rollin on my phone plan I got stuck with another 2 year contract. I just figured that if I was going to be stuck with it for that much longer that I might as well get a new phone that I like. Rollin says I went a little overboard cause I bought the new Blackberry that just came out through at&t. I like it a lot. Neatest thing about it is it a really good layout for doing things on the internet so as soon as I get back into the position to invest more I’ll be able to do it on my phone when I’m not near a computer which is really neat. I’m still very much working towards a very important savings goal of 15 thousand in combined monetary assets before Rollin leaves.

I’ve been looking a little bit into a new job soon. I love where I’m at but I feel like I’m just burnt out on it. In my eyes I’m too young right now to be limiting myself to any sort of long term occupation. I want very much to learn another trade right now I’ve been talking to a coworker’s husband who’s a crane operator about some of the unionized work I could get into dealing with construction. So far everything sounds interesting and definitely sounds like it would be a substantial increase in pay which I’m very excited about because it would mean that I would be able to save quite a bit more than I am now.

Schools is going ok. I am going to have to take a semester off from in the early stages of Rollin being here because I want to make sure he gets stable in living in a new place before I start having to spend a majority of my time away from him while I’m at class.

We’ve been to our new ward out here for two weeks now and so fat we both really like it. For the most part it just feels a lot more spiritual that a couple of the other wards I’ve been to recently..

Well my phone is about to die so I better end for now toodles.

My little brother is coming out here!

I know I’ve been a little spotty on my posting, but it mainly because there really isn’t a lot of different things that have been happening in life really. I figure ten years from now I don’t really want to come back just to read about my work. I just want to read about the fun I had.

Well it just so happens that there is soon to be something exciting happen for me here in Vegas. I was finally able to convince my little brother to move out here to work under me while he’s saving up for him mission! Its going to be so great having family out here with me again because its always been really hard to be alone and so far away from everything I know for this long. Rollin being out here will give me new reason to be confident about what I’m doing at work and in my personal life.

I’ve been working really hard this last month to really budget my spending habits and have really impressed myself with what i’ve been able to do. After bills, I limited myself to $75 for the first two weeks of this month. That money had to pay for everything including gas and meals and entertainment, and I actually went the whole time with still over $30 left! I’m really doing good at saving my money from that. This last month alone I’ve been able to put quite a bit extra in savings as well as open up an investment account at TD Ameritrade. I’ve already purchased a 6 month CD from this which at maturity is supposed to make me 3% which I’m thrilled about. Right now its not a lot of money, but if i keep at it i believe that I’ll be a lot more financially secure. I always used to think that I was “far behind” a lot of my friends out here because they all had the privilege of not having to pay for their car so i would have expected them to have a lot saved up right? NOPE! I dunno any other way to say it, but I’m really proud of myself for doing all of this on my own.

Well I’ve got to go now. Gotta get home and atleast enjoy some part of today. Been in this office for over 12 hours today and i’m sick of it! :P