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Tonight as I sat on the couch reading the news coverage on Steve Jobs’ passing, it struck me why I’m enamored with Apple’s products. It’s not that I’m a fanboy (okay, I might be on the edge of being one..) — it’s because of the culture set in place by Steve Jobs.

He didn’t just want to make the average run-of-the-mill beige box computer. It’s not that he just wanted to enter the mp3 player market. It’s not that he simply wanted a piece of the mobile phone market. It’s that he wanted to revolutionize by thinking different.

It’s that he was so meticulous about the products his company produced. It’s that he was so adamant about his ideals that he’d not waver.

As I sat tonight using my MacBook, iPad, and iPhone, it sunk in what Steve Jobs truly meant to the technological world.

RIP Steve.

- Blogged from my iPhone

A couple weeks ago, we went to San Diego on a half vacation / half business trip. A huge thanks to Ben & Joel for agreeing to let my family come along!

Knowing that we’d be driving to San Diego and Orlando this year, we took my Trailblazer in to have the AC fixed as well as have 100,000 mile maintenance performed. As that work was being completed, the mechanics discovered something wrong with the front axle as well. All in all, we spent about $1700 getting my car ready.. and that’s on top of the $800 we spent on new tires back in May.

All goes well on the San Diego trip of course.. right? Of course not.

Halfway through the first day of travel, both Monica and I start thinking the air just isn’t being pushed out strong enough. It’s cool enough, but the pressure just isn’t there like it should be. Once we get to our destination for the first day, I call the local Chevy dealership to see if they can get it in. Nope, they can’t — not until 5 days from then. Well that obviously won’t work, so I call a dealership in San Diego and they said they’d be able to look at it if we have the car to them first thing in the morning. The only problem is that we’re 12 hours away from San Diego still, so we decide to let the girls swim, eat some dinner, and then pull an all-nighter.

Along the way, we start hearing a sound like something’s hitting the car. At first I thought it might be the antenna coming loose, but that wasn’t it. I look down at the front passenger side tire and notice a plastic part of the wheel well had come loose and was coming in contact with the tire. Plastic + Rubber ≠ Good. So I try to put the plastic part back to where it won’t hit the tire anymore, but it still does. So we pull over again at a gas station. I bought a bungee cord and rigged the plastic part to the front bumper so that it wouldn’t hit the tire anymore. In that process, Monica starts looking at the front bumper and we realize that it’s not completely affixed to the car!

Needless to say, the last few hours to San Diego were a bit nerve wracking. As we’re driving, Monica and I decide that we’re just not trusting of the car anymore and that we don’t want to put any more money in a car with 111,000+ miles on it. The mechanic we had do the 100k maintenance found something else wrong.. what if this dealership found something too? We just decide to cut our losses. I drove the car to a few local dealerships and found one to buy it. We rented a car for the drive back home. A HUGE thanks to my dad for spending so much time locating the title to the car for us. We really did know where it was.. too bad it was the third place we knew where it was..

Selling my Trailblazer was bittersweet for a couple reasons. It was the first vehicle Monica and I bought together. While minor in the end, it’s still a little sad!

More importantly, both Katie Lynn and Karyn were brought home from the hospitals in my Trailblazer.

Katie Lynn:

Karyn:

A car is just a car, but I’m definitely going to miss my Trailblazer. That being said, I’m very excited about my new vehicle! More info on that coming soon..

Classic!

And the great sequel a couple decades later..

Loved these commercials.

Three and a half years ago, Monica and I purchased Katie Lynn’s crib set from Babies R Us. We thought we were being smart by purchasing the crib that would grow with her.. from a crib to a toddler bed to a full size bed. We special ordered the full mattress rails and conversion kit at that time.

Flash forward to about three weeks ago. We bought new mattresses for everyone in the house: a new queen set for Monica and me, a full set for Katie Lynn, and a twin set for Karyn’s upcoming transition this summer. The mattresses were being delivered on a late Saturday afternoon, so Monica and I begin to covert Katie Lynn’s toddler bed into the full size configuration. And of course, there’s a problem. The rails don’t seem to look like the ones in the instructions, and there aren’t enough screws to actually assemble the rails to the headboard and footboard.

Great.. now what? At that point, we believed the situation was one of two possibilities:

1. We received the wrong rail conversion kit.
2. We received the right set but some of the parts were missing.

I decided to call the store where we originally purchased the rails to see what, if anything, they could do. In the end, they offered to special order another set of rails for us and they would simply swap them out.

That’s incredible given the fact that we had purchased the rails 3.5 years earlier. There was absolutely no hesitation on their side. Even more surprising was that they still had our order in their system, so they knew exactly what we ordered and what stock/part number they needed to special order.

In the end, we did actually receive the correct rails but there were some screws missing. Once we got the new set the bed assembled like a charm.

It’s refreshing that a company would do this for a customer. To the team at the Plano, TX Babies R Us — thank you. Customer service done right.

With Easter being Sunday, I’ve been doing a lot of reflection lately and just wanted to write down how He’s been active in my life in the past few years.

Flashback to summer 2005.. our oldest niece was born. Monica and I got bit hard by the baby bug, but it unfortunately didn’t happen for us. We went to a specialist culminating in the need to do an IUI. Odds weren’t in our favor as the specialist informed us the success rate for the first IUI was only 18%. Faith played a huge role, and He saw us through it. We were blessed with a pregnancy after the first IUI in March 2007.

We were ecstatic to learn that Monica was actually pregnant with twins, but we were saddened a week later to discover one of the twins’ heartbeats had stopped. We were naturally heartbroken, but we also knew that the other baby was okay.

The rest of Monica’s pregnancy was rather non-eventful: everything normal at ultrasounds, etc. That is.. until Monica’s water breaks a month early. After a 44 hour labor, Katie Lynn finally graces us with her presence! She was taken to the nursery for observation and ended up in the NICU. Long story short (long version here), she had three surgeries within her first 60 days of life and saw a pediatric gastroenterlogist for her first 8 months of life. Many times during those 8 months we felt “why us” and “why her”. But we knew He would see us through it, and for whatever His reasons, He decided that we were the parents Katie Lynn needed to see her through it all. He had chosen us, and it’s all about faith in Him for guidance and support.

In the middle of Katie Lynn’s surgeries, Monica has her gall bladder removed and after a single day of recovery, she’s up and about doing everything she can for Katie Lynn.

Flash forward to Fall/Winter 2009. Monica and I started talking about when we’d want a second child and whatnot. The Monday before Christmas, Monica and Katie Lynn bring “an early Christmas present” into my office and tell me to open it. And what’s inside? A positive pregnancy test. We were both so surprised we had conceived naturally given our past concerning Katie Lynn’s pregnancy. Karyn was born in August 2009 after another uneventful pregnancy — a perfect delivery and post-partem. We were released two days later. He had provided for us once again.

At that same time as the end of Monica’s pregnancy and Karyn’s birth, my Mom is diagnosed with stage 3 bladder cancer. She had surgery to remove her bladder one week before Karyn was born. It was a successful surgery that resulted in the removal of all the cancer, and once again faith got her and my family through it. Then on the day after Karyn was born, my mom was being released from the hospital when she has a massive heart attack. Luckily, the heart hospital was connected to the hospital she was already at and she was rushed in for surgery again. If circumstances had been different, i.e. she was already back at home, I’m not sure she would have made it. Blessings in disguise, and the constant is the Lord. He knew her work was not done on this earth.

In May 2010, one Thursday night I had the single most intense painful physical feeling I’ve ever experienced. The next night, the same exact pain happened again in exactly the same location. After an ER visit and some visits to a urologist, a preliminary diagnosis was made: testicular cancer. After talking with Monica, we made the decision to proceed with having the affected testicle removed. After the surgery, pathology determined it was not cancer but instead vasculitis. I was referred to a rheumatologist for further treatment. After multiple tests and whatnot, my rheumatologist determined that it was a rare occurrence of isolated vasculitis — all tests and indicators show that it’s no longer present.

In November 2010, my brother-in-law Ryan, at the urging of his coworkers, took part in a free health screening. Why not? It was free and not a bad idea to have done! Good thing he did – test results were concerning and he was ultimately diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. He had surgery the week of Thanksgiving to microscopically remove what ended up being a softball sized tumor. He’s currently undergoing chemotherapy and slated to be completed in a couple months.

So, yeah.. it’s been a very trying time for me and my family over the past four years. But faith is extremely powerful! After all of this, where do things stand?

• Katie Lynn is a healthy 3.5 year old. The only remaining “signs” of her ordeal are her scars and her petite frame. But hey, there’s much worse things to be!
• Monica’s doing just fine without her gall bladder.
• Karyn is a healthy albeit ornery almost 20 month old!
• My mom is going on 20 months of being cancer free. It’s not always easy, but she’s doing amazingly and getting stronger as each day goes by.
• I’m doing great. Each follow up appointment with the rheumatologist gets spaced out further and further apart from the last one.
• Ryan is still having his chemo treatments, but at this point is cancer free with a very positive prognosis.

The Lord is SO present in my life, and His impact on me is immeasurable.

I’m going to close this post with the lyrics to two of my favorite praise songs – To The Glory and The Way You Love Me both by Danny Lacey:

I will live my life
Walking in your way
A little more like you
Each and every day
Learning how to trust
I trust you’ll make me change
So That I can live
To the glory of your name

Jesus I want to walk like you
Jesus I want to talk like you
Jesus I want to look like you
To the glory of your name

Glory and honor wisdom and power
Are yours forever amen
Glory and honor wisdom and power
Are yours forever amen
Amen

You say your love for me is higher than the heavens
Deeper than the oceans and the sea
And I could never comprehend the depth your love reaches
But I know it reaches the deepest part in me
And praises rise from the depths of my soul
And I say

Thank you for the way that you love me
Thank you for this life that you gave me
Thank you for the way that you set me free
Thank you for the sacrifice
The way you came and gave your life
The way you made this blind man see
Thank you for the way that you love me

I work in a virtual office; Site5 has no physical office. The “old” term was telecommuting but has morphed into “working from home” and remote workforces. Virtual offices present many advantages from the company perspective, but what about the employees? In doing this for over 3.5 years, I can say with certainty that working remotely is not for everyone. Why though?

It takes discipline.

Working from home takes a lot (and I mean a lot) of discipline from not just myself but from Monica, Katie Lynn, Karyn as well as my family and friends.

There’s many distractions at home. The trash needs to be taken out. The dishes don’t wash themselves. Someone has to fold the laundry. It’s very easy to let the mind wander throughout the day since the distractions are *right there* staring you in the face. When family members are home during work hours, it is quite easy to be distracted by short conversations here and there or to be interrupted by two daughters that don’t fully understand that daddy’s working. Even though I work from home, I’m still working.. meaning there should be no distinction to other people, but that doesn’t always happen.

Separation of home and work.

This isn’t easy for some people – myself included. The lines are blurred when you work from home. I find myself, quite frequently actually, working after work. After Katie Lynn and Karyn go to bed, if Monica and I are just relaxing on the couch, it’s so easy to just do some work. With some remote jobs, that’s not always possible to do. But since mine has a task/project emphasis, it’s quite easy to *just work* when relaxing. And often times, I’ll find that I get so much done “after hours” to the point where it’s easier to just wait until the night to do things on purpose.

Adult Interaction

Working remotely severely lessons interaction with other adults. During the week, most of the adult interaction I get is with my wife naturally. The only other adult interaction I get regularly are the teachers at my daughter’s school (since I drop them off in the mornings) and other parents of kids there that I know. That’s it. Of course, if we have plans on evening during the week, there’s more.. but that’s not a regular occurrence. There’s no in-person office experience, no water cooler talk, no break room to eat lunch together, etc..  and I really do miss that.

Equipment Responsibilty

Working in a completely virtual office (as opposed to the occasional telecommute setup), I am responsible for having a suitable computer, reliable Internet connection, etc. Granted, some companies may cover some of those costs and some may not, and if not, it’s an added expense if something were to happen to my primary computer. That’s not really an issue though since I’d need a new computer anyways if my primary laptop died. But it’s different from a traditional office setting where a computer breaking is the company’s responsibility to repair/replace.

Conclusions

In my opinion, it takes real commitment to be able to work from home effectively. The distractions can easily overwhelm someone if they’re not completely focused on the work at hand, but there’s obvious benefits from being able to work from home and I love that I’m able to do it.

I’ve finally done it.. I’m pursuing a passion of mine that I’ve always wanted to do:

So, why now? Why not!

If you or someone you know is looking for quality photography at a reasonable price, send them my way!

Watching the TicketCity Bowl and remembering the reports from last week regarding Tommy Tuberville stating Tech will be running more next year, I got to thinking..

Is that really a bad thing? I don’t necessarily think so.

Like most people, I thoroughly enjoyed Mike Leach and the Air Raid offense. The 2008 season was phenomenal – one that’ll be remembered. How did that season end? Losses in two of the last three games: a 65-21 shellacking at Oklahoma and a 47-34 loss to Ole Miss at the Cotton Bowl. Still a great season though.

But what else was there?

Seasons full of mediocracy and usually extremely poor defense. In order for Tech to seriously become a competitor, three things are needed:

1. One trick pony on offense is not sustainable. I don’t think Tech necessarily has to be 50/50 balanced; however, we need to be able to run the ball. Tuberville knows this with his SEC background. Until today’s TicketCity Bowl, Taylor Potts had the longest run from scrimmage. Yes, our quarterback had the longest run from scrimmage.. that’s pathetic.
2. We need a defense. Ruffin did great things in his all-too-brief tenure, but that’s about it. We’re in the bottom few this year in defense and dead last in pass defense.
3. The team needs discipline, and Tuberville has done a great job of preaching that this year. Penalties (as a general rule) were out of control under Leach. Also, while it was fun waiting all of the 4th and n to go gambles, there is nothing wrong with kicking a field goal!

I’m still not happy with how things played out with Leach; Kent Hance and Gerald Myers should have been fired for that. Although, I said it before and I’ll say it again – Mike Leach wasn’t the coach to lead this team to the next tier of play.

If you look at the last ten years of BCS bowl games, you’ll see that the bulk of teams had solid defenses and an offense that relied on both passing and running. Sure, there may have been an emphasis on one over the other, but both were a big enough threat for opposing defenses.

The jury is (should be) still open on Tommy Tuberville. I’m anxious to see how the next few years will go.. it’ll definitely be interesting.