Author: Moby

2014

I don’t have any big resolutions this year. As always, I strive to be better than I am, to learn and grow from my mistakes. I will continue that approach in 2014. But that is more of a philosophy than a resolution. Tied into that is to spend less time on social media and more time on the things that matter. And by less time, I don’t mean avoiding as much as using it as the tool it was meant to be.

Having The Pup in my life has given me a somewhat new outlook on things. My love for him continues to grow. We are still in the fresh-new love, as I call it, phase. The kind where you can’t wait to spend every moment together. Your whole day is just a distraction till you get home to him. That sort of love. hehehe I’m confident we’ll reach the long-abiding love phase but I am really enjoying the now. I hope to hold onto it even as our love matures. I continue to look forward to our future together.

There will be some changes in my life in the coming year. As I finish up the project at work in <strike> late March </strike> early May, I’ll be moving back to normal operations. I’ve decided to stay on a day-shift. I had to give up my full weekend slot though. Seniority on day-shift is still high and getting a weekend slot on what we refer to as ‘straight days’ is not an easy task. Even as I move into 13 years on the job, getting a premium day slot is difficult. I do have a partial weekend so it’s fine and I’m switching so I can spend more time with The Pup.

The finances will continue to be a big focus. I want to cut my debt load in half this year, at the very least. It may mean forgoing some frivilous fun stuff but hey, that’s life right? Seriously though, I hate forking over so much money for debt every month. I know I’ve said in the past I’d never go into debt again and this wasn’t really shopping or wasteful spending, but it is a total pain. I’ve canceled two of my three cards. [1]I say canceled, one was in default. lol I will not be applying for a new one. Frankly, I just don’t need that much credit. I try to live within my means and having too much credit discourages that. Thankfully, I had it when I needed it but I hope to never be in such a situation again.

Having a partner and a roomie who pay rent is certainly helping on the finance front. hehehe The roomie will be with us for most of this year. Things are a little comfy but overall still easy and no strain to manage. Even with overlapping schedules it has worked out pretty decent so far. Home life is calm and happy, just how I like it. Whether we are bouncing to the Eagle for beer-bust, lounging on the sofa, or just hanging at Starbucks, the comfort is addicting.

My goals for the coming year are to get back into a solid gym routine. Having a new partner certainly distracts one from such things. lol But it is time to get serious again and start pushing myself. I still have that 210 goal to reach. Beyond that, there isn’t much I can ask for. Life is treating me good and I hope it lasts. I’m not greedy and many of the things I’ve always want in life I now have. I am truly grateful for that.

Of course, I’ll keep blathering away here. I’m always tinkering with the code and blog.

References

References
↑1 I say canceled, one was in default. lol

2013

Well, 2013 turned out to be an amazing here for me. It was a time for personal reflection on past mistakes. It was a time of emotional and financial recovery. It was also a time of joy and happiness.

The year started rather ho-hum. Nothing bad or good, just rather uneventful. I switched shifts at work for a software project. This put me on day shift, which I lamented repeatedly. Ironically, the timing of my assignment was instrumental, even if I didn’t recognize it at the time.

As time went by the year just got better and better.

There is, of course, my beloved Cooper. He always brings me joy. His unconditional love is a constant light in my life. I will never understand how anyone could abandon such a wonderful animal. Being a special needs dog only makes me love him that much more.

Of course, unless you never read my madness, there was my meeting The Pup. Knowing each other online for years, this was our first year to meet in person. I believe that life brought him to me. The coincidences and alignment of occurrences were all too obvious to ignore. My time on the project gave me a lot of flexibility to visit back and forth while he was still living in Phoenix. I truly believe I was meant to be with him. He has taught me the meaning of true love and what it feels like to be loved unconditionally. I eagerly anticipate our future together. I simply cannot imagine my life without him.

My finances came together and are well under control again. I’m still carrying a debt load but knowing I’m on top it takes a huge stress off of me. It will take a couple years to get it down to what I want but getting a consolidation loan most definitely helped. The interest was slightly higher than what I wanted but I can apply for a refinance in a year so I’m pleased.

As always, I struggle to be better than I am. It is not a NY resolution as much as an approach to life in general. The struggle continues. This past year didn’t test me as much as reaffirm my growth in this area.

I won’t miss 2013 as much as look back on it fondly. I am excited to greet 2014.

Filter

As previously mentioned, I’ve been doing some cleaning on the blog. As of today, I switched off my beloved SK2 junk comment filter. I’ve been threatening to do so for some time now. t hasn’t been supported in years but continued to chug along doing admirably at blocking unwanted comments.

Sadly, as WP has continues to grow and evolve it’s code the filter was becoming too much to manage. It would break as much as it fixed so I finally axed it.

I switched over to Akismet. If you find your comments aren’t getting thru, please email me or contact me via social media to advise. I’ll try to keep a good eye on it for a few weeks to make sure everything is functioning as planned.

More to come!

Grown

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Everyone has been asking about the Cooper. He is doing just fine. As you can see, he is sitting pretty and feeling good. We’ve had two years together this past November. What started out as a abandoned and unloved puppy has turned into a loved, valued, and wonderfully well adjusted bully. He is back down to a slim 62 lbs. And while learning to enjoy the life of leisure and comfort, he is still very active for a bully. Not to mention, having a toy been that is constantly being replenished. Update – I may have to start watching him with squeaky toys. He usually will chew the squeaker till it pops out and then ignore the toy. One toy recently we never found the squeaker so he may have taken to just eating it. The next one I’ll be watching….

We have noticed his hearing is a little off. He hears ok but has a lot of trouble triangulating where the sound is coming from.  While I’m hopeful, it won’t surprise me if he develops real hearing issues as he ages. I’ll still love my deaf monster as much as I possibly could if it happens. Beyond that, his skin is a constant battle to keep healthy. He is very prone to staff. Not surprising but still a frustration. Luckily, that is all so far. as he moves into adulthood more issues could pop up, but for an all-white bully, he is remarkably healthy so far.

Anything new still scares him at first but he is much less skiddish these days. He has become bored with the MUNI cable cars, skateboards, pigeons, and random recycle bins. They seem not to have the same “oh shit, hold onto the leash” fascination as they did previously. He knows the neighborhood pretty intimately now. He often times figures out where we are going just by the route we take to get there. hehehe

His life is easy but structured. He gets his meals, treats, and breaks pretty much on time consistently every day. I’ll probably be able to eliminate is mid-day pee break in this next year as he has mastered the art of holding it. The only mishap was once while I was gone, he peed on the floor for attention. Well that and every so often he’ll just randomly barf up his entire lunch. He proceeds to eat it a second time but it tends to leave a sticky stained mess on the carpet, which always needs attention.

I will admit every time he hacks or coughs I freak out a little bit. Apple guy and I discovered Spike’s cancer that way and I’ll always be scared the same will happen to Cooper. Of course, so far his hacks are always after food so once the irrational fear passes reason sets in. Just the thought of Cooper getting sick moves me to tears. I love him so very much.

Tinker 2.0

Many of you have probably noticed I’ve been tinkering with the blog theme and formats a bit. As the push for integration becomes higher, newer better
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features become available to perform many of the functions I hack together thru various plug-ins from time to time. Normally, I wouldn’t blather on about it however some of the changes might affect registered users.

Subscriptions: I’m phasing out the old plug-in for a newer simpler one. You won’t notice much for existing subscriptions. However, if you notice you are no longer getting updates by email, you should resubscribe. Anytime you post a comment, click the option that applies. If you are itching to be proactive, you can follow the link on the email to unsubscribe. Then the next time you leave a new comment, simply click the appropriate check-box. This does not affect the existence of your user account.

Social log-ins: One of the open-id providers has ceased operations. Another provider allegedly picked up their user base but time will tell. I’m also switching to a new log-in module for social site IDs like FB, twitter, Google, etc. Again, you’ll be presented with an option to log in anytime you try to leave a comment . I’ve phased out Yahoo as no one has used it, not even once. lol  Anyway, the option to log-in with social media from the registered user page is currently disabled until I have a chance to test how the two plug-ins work together. I’m assuming it is seamless but we know where that gets us…

Social Comments: If you reply or leave a comment regarding a post via Facebook or twitter, it does get pulled into the blog. It doesn’t happen immediately so no need to email me. It runs as a cron-job on my server every so often. If you get notified your comment was labeled as junk, just email me and I’ll fix it.

Theme: I’ve removed the static mobile theme in favor of responsive theme that adapts to a mobile display automatically. I’m still searching for one I like best so the theme may change a few more times. The one I have now is OK but not quite a good fit. Suggestions are appreciated.

I’m also taking recommendations on a new junk filter. I’ve been using SK2 for years. I keep threatening to dump it but it’s been my favorite. It is no longer supported and sadly becoming less and less effective.

Selfies v2.0

[gallery  orderby=”rand” type=”slideshow” ids=”4955,4954,4953,4952,4951,4950,4949,4948,4947,4946,4945″]

So what is everyone doing today? [1]Besides posting food pics to social media  I’m working but it’s been slow. Being on days makes even slower. *yawn*  Clearly, I wasn’t overly busy as I had time to run around posting selfies with my co-workers.

We had a big feed and I spent some time helping prep and setup. I’m usually on a later shift so being on the day side was slower than even I expected. lol Tonight will be busier but I’ll be gone by then. Anyway, hope your day was warm and fuzzy. The Pup and I are off to see a movie later and then probably Chinese delivery for dinner!

References

References
↑1 Besides posting food pics to social media

Happy Festi-Hanna-Kwana-solti-xmas

In other words, happy holidays, whatever you celebrate!  It’s always funny reading about the war on christmas. A holiday based on Christianity but all the
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‘traditions’ were stolen from so-called pagan religions. And just because we realize we aren’t a one-religion country and try to show others the courtesy doesn’t make it a war on your particular made-up holiday. *yawn*

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Whatever floats your boat, I hope that you are having a good one. I don’t get all crazy over holidays. The Pup and I didn’t even put up a tree this year. I like to think I don’t need a holiday to appreciate the ones I love. I don’t wait for a special event to show someone I care. That being said, I can still appreciate the spirit of the holiday. We are exchanging gifts. We told each other nothing extravagant or expensive. We are doing one gift each. Even though, mine turned into two gifts. ‘Let me es’plain’. I originally ordered online to avoid all the drama with in-person shopping. Problem solved. That is until I got a notice saying “it was on back-order” and I had to brave the madness. It actually wasn’t as awful as I expected. Oh it was a mess but not the all out craziness. Anyway, I started out by just looking for a simple gift to get him over the holiday till his original gift arrived. Well after I bought the new gift, I found a better version of the item I ordered online. So that’s how I ended up with two gifts. Ironically, all the shopping got me a little more into the spirit. I totally almost blew off the rule about one gift.

I’m working this year, as usual. If it falls on my work day, I work it. Since I’m still doing the project at work, even though I go back to Ops on holidays, I’ll be on day shift. I’ll miss most of the evening drama that comes from families that, after lots of booze, realize why they only see each other once a year. hehehe

I hope that whatever you’re doing this year that you’re safe and warm. And if your holiday isn’t all perky and rosy, well the year is almost over. Hang in there a few more days.

And in those immortal words….’Be good to one another’

Freedom

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The recent fallout over the PR lady poking fun of AIDS in Africa and the phoney character from that stupid duck show both illustrate my point.

First of all, freedom of speech in our constitution is meant to protect citizens from government censorship. The first amendment is not relevant to either of these situations so whining about their ‘freedoms’ being violated just shows a lack of understanding. It also shows cowardice in trying to hide behind biased comments as “freedom of speech” in an attempt to avoid any repercussions for said speech.

If you’ve been living under a rock, a PR lady for a rather large umbrella company posted a tweet making fun of going to Africa and inferring she wouldn’t get AIDS because she was white. She was fired from her job for it. Many felt she deserved it, others felt she didn’t really say anything wrong. The latter being based on an erroneous belief that Africa has a large percentage of HIV+ individuals that are black. As if that makes her heinous comments about being white ok.

The other example, a completely contrived character from a ‘reality TV’ show went on a long nasty tirade about gays and religion in an interview for a magazine. He was kicked off the show for it. Several side drama stories have ensued as well. The show might even get canceled because now the other phoney characters are threatening to boycott filming. Oh what a tragedy to our national IQ that would be. /sarcasm

Getting fired from your job for making racist or homophobic comments, however innocent you might have meant them in your ignorance, is not a violation of your first amendment rights.

The moral boys and girls?
Words have consequences, good and bad. Think before you speak.

Delish

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I sometimes stop by Delish for lunch when I neglect to bring food or am too lazy to prepare some. The other day I opted to have my sandwich there. Being somewhat a creature of habit these days, I got the same thing I always get, the grilled pesto chicken pannini. I ran off and left my wallet sitting in my chair. [1]Don’t ask me how I accomplished that and someone was kind of enough to turn it in.

I freak out about an hour later, call, they have it, I run back by. One of the employees had gone out of his way to find me and try to get it back to me. Sadly, I don’t keep any phone number references in my wallet. (Maybe I should?) Anyway, I was touched that in this day and age, there is still some honesty in the world. I had about $60 in cash in the wallet, and it was still there. Not a dollar was missing. [2]Yes, I gave them a fat tip for being so honest. 

So, not only is the food good and the staff friendly, they’re honest! They’ve definitely earned a loyal customer and I am calling the owner so he knows of the good deed!

If you’re local, it’s on Van Ness right next to the somewhat new Phil’s coffee shop. Stop by sometime. Tell’em Moby sent ya!

References

References
↑1 Don’t ask me how I accomplished that
↑2 Yes, I gave them a fat tip for being so honest.