No Name Blog

So, despite my working for one of the best hosting companies in the world, I haven’t been much of an early adopter for a lot of the Web 2.0 technologies out there. Hell, I can’t even keep my blog updated, and it’s one of the “first” and most straight forward inroad into this world of social networking. Anyway, there’s a lot out there. So, in order to get myself caught up and such, I signed up for a Twitter account on Friday.

It’s hard to describe exactly what it is, but think of it as blogging with severe A.D.D. You get 140 characters to speak your mind and often times, this generates replies by those who “follow” you. You chose people to follow was well. So, you start to build a rolling list of comments made by people all over the world. There are any number of disjointed conversations for you to take part in, and when you explore new people to follow, you get to see who they are following - thereby increasing the potential to add to the pool of comments you get. It’s kind of like the digital version of people watching at a bar in the middle of a Las Vegas casino.

Anyway, I’ve enjoyed it. Hopefully this will get me to post more thoughts here (the kind that need more than 140 characters). I felt like sharing. Check it out if you haven’t before. Hopefully, I’ll see you there!

Wow!

Tiff and I just got back from a short trip to Playa del Carmen. We went there for our honeymoon, and loved the area - and discovered we could get used to the all-inclusive lifestyle! After all the work we did this summer with the houses, I thought it would be fun to sneak back down there again and hideout for a little bit. We also used it to honor our 6th anniversary. (A week after the fact)

Her parents were kind enough to keep the kids, so we got some quality time as just the two of us. Interestingly enough, it’s the third year in a row we’ve been out of the country. I’m not sure if that’s a pattern that will repeat next year, but I’m hopping we get to take another trip abroad before 09 is up - maybe we’ll even take Keith on the next one.

Anyway, this time around, we stayed at the Occidental Grand Xcaret. It was a great little resort! It wasn’t as nice as the place we stayed on the honeymoon, but we enjoyed it. There are a couple of things to look out for at this one - most notably the time share guys - but I found the reviews at TripAdvisor helped with that. I need to get on there and give one of my own. (In general, I’d say check that site out for any place you are thinking about staying)

The best part of the trip for us was this resort was right next to the Xcaret Eco Park. It’s a really neat combination of Mayan history, beach fun and natural oddities like snorkeling through underground rivers (evidentially a great deal of the peninsula has water underneath it). For staying at the resort, you get a one-day pass and it’s only a five-minute walk to the park. There’s even a chapel (in the park, not the resort) that has mass at 4:30 on Sunday! (we tried to catch it, but something must have happened because the priest never showed).

Anyway, overall, it was a great way to do a short trip because we had an excursion out of the resort built right in with the park. The rest of the time, we just got to relax and enjoy time together. I’ve got several of the pictgures on my Picasa album if anyone wants to see them.

So, along with me being a huge slacker and neglecting the blog (we’ll discuss that later), it appears that comments are broken. I’m in the process of investigating that issue. I’ll keep you all posted.

Peace,
Matt

edit -  08-01-2007 - 1:29 pm:  issue resolved See comments for solution

Today, I got to be a DJ!

Some enterprising folks at my company set up a little underground radio station that streams music across the company network.  On Fridays, they have live DJs throughout the day.  This morning, they had me fill in for one of the other ones.  It looks like I’ll get to keep spending an hour doing so going forward.

My show is primarily Texas/Americana music.  I throw in a little old-school Country and some extra goodies like Jimmy Buffet and my good Friend D.G who’s big up in Lubbock.  I’m really excited.  I’ll keep you posted on how things go.

Peace

Well, after several months of searching, and two failed attempts on the same neighborhood, we’ve finally found a new house! We put an offer on it a couple weeks ago. It’s a great spot for the next phase of our lives. We are looking forward to moving into a bigger place. This one has three living areas, so we should be able to keep the toys under control (at least as much as can be hoped. I’ve attached a small picture of the front of the house here:

We close on May 30th. It looks like the owners will need it for a couple of days past that, so we’ll have it by the first Saturday in June. After that, we have a lot of work to do on paint and flooring before we move. Plus, we haven’t even listed our house yet (we meet with the realtor tonight). I’ll keep you posted, but we will probably move sometime in mid June.

Peace!

I gave someone the following directions to find my cube today:

Come in the downstairs entrance from our main lobby and turn right. Once you’re in the main area, turn left and go down the wall past the tiki bar. I’ll be on your right – just before a palm tree on the wall and a poster with a bunch of baby pictures.

I love this place!. It’s just weird enough to always keep things interesting. I now return you to your regularly scheduled, and hopefully not boring, workdays.

Peace!

I decided the blog needed a little different look the standard WordPress theme. So, I found some nifty ones out there. You can find a link about this one at the bottom if you care to look in to it. Ok, back to the “real” posts.

Peace!

Mainly because I haven’t posted squat to this blog in forever! Sorry to any and all (I’m predicting about 4 at most) of you that have paid attention this far. It seems that a trip to the UK, a birthday and life have gotten in my way. Ironically, those are the very things I should be posting about. Fortunately, I have several of the topics lined up - I just have to add meat to them. I’ll be working on that diligently. Obviously, it does no good to promise that I will. The track record speaks for itself. Stay tuned, and be sure to look back a few posts (you never know when a “new” one will pop up from the past)

Peace!

Matt

I’m not a morning person. The remaining jet lag, however, and the need to cook for 150 people today, had me up before the sun this cool February morning in London. (There was also that well placed call I asked my lovely wife to make before she ended her evening back home. It’s great to have a number that works here and is local to her!) I’m staying in a part of London called Chiswick (pronounced Chis-ick). It’s a neat little area on the West side of the city. Less than a block away from my flat, is a historic pack called Turnham Green. It’s all very nice, and hopefully, will help make things a little more comfortable while I’m here.

Thanks to, what I’ve now determined to be less than perfect, advice on which tube station to use, I had about a half-mile walk to get my day going. In retrospect, I’m grateful for it. By the time I was already passing Christ Church (in the middle of the Green), my mind was wandering. The area of London I was walking through has history going back to the year 1000. While it hasn’t always been urban, the reality is that people have walked that very street for a long long time.

We have such a limited view as Americans. Our country is young - very young. In the grand scheme of the world, we’ve done a lot, but we haven’t seen much history. I’m thankful for the times I’ve been over to Europe. It helps put a lot of things in perspective. I love home, but seeing more of the world gives me such a better understanding.

So, I walked this morning with the Ghosts of Turnham Green. While the music from my mp3 player helped me greet the morning, the spirits of 1000 years of history matched me step for step. 5000 miles from home, I walked with them down a street towards a subway station I wasn’t quite sure the location of. I thought about life. I thought about history. I thought about home. And, most importantly, I thought about my family. Perspective on life these apparitions may have brought, but with clarity, you miss the important things all that much more.

So, today found me bleary-eyed and exhausted on a Monday Afternoon in London. This is my second trip to the UK - both because of work. Tiffany and I both came out in August and spent a week doing the tourist bit. Then, I worked a week on my company’s UK office. There are some pictures of that trip on our site. (Be careful, I still need to edit, cut and clean up that album - i just dumped all the pics there for now).

We had a ball on that trip. We got to see Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Tower of London. I think, though, if you asked either of us, we had the most fun just wandering around the city and spending time with each other (we love the kids, but MAN is time with just the two of us nice!). The second half of that trip was ok for me - with one exception. Tiff left on a Tuesday. In the wee hours of Thursday morning, they busted all those terrorists that started this whole no liquids on planes era that we are in. I was set to leave the following Monday. WEEEEE! I made it out ok - no carry-on, but ok. Coming in this time was no biggie. We’ll see how leaving is in a couple of weeks.

So, now that I’m actually back to this trip, it’s a lot different. That one was August. This one is the second half of Feb. That one, I had Tiff for a week. This one, I’m on my own for two. Being away from my whole family for this long will be rough. The longest I’ve every done that was when dad was in hospital and I was gone for about a week and a half. We’ll se how things go.

As for the title of what has now become quite rambling, this is my fourth flight across the Atlantic. I haven’t quite mastered getting to sleep in a reasonable amount of time. Thankfully, on this trip, I came straight to the office so I can power through the day and crash tonight - hopefully avoiding the jet lag somewhat. Tomorrow, I have to cook Cajun food for about 150 folks in this office. (That’s a whole different story for another time).

I will say that anyone coming from Texas to London, check out the flight from Houston Intercontinental to Gatwick on Continental. Coming out of San Antonio, it’s perfect for me because it’s one hop and then on to the big flight. They use 777s for the international leg, so it’s a great plane to be on. Also, for this time of year, it’s nice to not have to worry about weather around airports up north that a lot of the other carriers use.

OK - I think I’ve meandered enough down this path. I’m tired. I’m here. I miss my wife and kids. And, I’m giving up coffee in two days, so I’m going to hit the free Starbucks machine while I still can. I’ll try an check in tomorrow or so.

Peace!