I spent nearly five years in the Air Force when I was younger. I was a young unattached single man who just wanted to explore the world and have as much fun along the way as possible.

I spent a year in South Korea and, for the most part, really enjoyed my time there. I utilized their incredible transit system to get out and see as much as I could. I went out and partied like a wild man all the time. And I also worked incredibly hard during very long days. There were only a few moments during my year that I was reminded of the real severity of the situation. There was the occasional anti-American rally that presented some very tense moments. Of course, visiting Panmunjom was very sobering. Then there was the 7:00 AM Saturday full-war recall with sirens and all that had everybody SCRAMBLING to get to their station, which turned out to just be a surprise drill (they ALWAYS planned drills far in advance with lots of warning). The scariest moment being during a war-games exercise, after a couple of days sitting in the snow guarding the perimeter, the radios lit up with all kinds of chatter and then they started handing out LIVE ammo to everybody. It turned out to be a very poorly communicated simulated “attack” by paratroopers – a bunch of people landed in the golf course and were assumed to be N. Koreans. Fortunately, they were A) American soldiers, and B) nobody was killed.

I also spent 4 months in Saudi Arabia, shortly after Khobar Towers was blown up. I had the sole responsibility of ensuring all of the paperwork was in order for anything being delivered to the base in downtown Riyadh – including lots of trucks similar to what blew up Khobar – all outside the gates before the bomb detection people/dogs were involved. You never knew who was friend or foe there. I spent a lot of time ensuring my head was always moving because I had a terrifying sense that I was in somebody’s crosshairs while standing outside the base “talking” to the truckers and inspecting their loads (lots of tall buildings with roof access all around). And all of this in a “friendly” country like Saudi Arabia.

Now when I reflect back on my time in the military, it all pales in comparison to what troops are enduring today. North Korea is threatening all-out war over the sinking of the South Korea military ship. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan can’t trust a single person outside of the people they deployed with. And they’re all doing year-long tours at a minimum, with often very little home time between deployments.

During my military time, I lacked perspective. Again, being young and single, I saw the world through a whole different set of eyes than a lot of the people I served with. I knew there were a lot of people who were very depressed on their remote tours, but it never really occurred to me the value of their pain until I became a father.

I worked with people who arrived in Korea during the final months of their wives pregnancy. Missing out on the entire first year of their children’s lives. Not there to provide support for their spouse. Just absent. Off in a distant land counting down days until they could be reunited with their family.

I see how much my daughter grows in just a week. I can’t imagine missing out on an entire year. Think about missing a year of a child who just turned two. Their first year of real memory building doesn’t include a parent because they’re not there. They’re overseas somewhere putting it all on the line. Also imagine that person who is missing out on their children growing up is wondering if today is the day his number comes up.

So I for one am unbelievably grateful for what the men and women of the armed forces provide for us every day.

I know the type… A person who truly believes that subtle little color differences are far superior and clean than more dramatic effects. The same type who think black text on a white background is a horrible choice – it must be all shades of gray, softly blending into each other. There’s no sense in making things usable; design trumps functionality always!

I work on a Mac almost all the time, but I do have a windows laptop for the occasional Excel document with lots of macros and other MS Office documents that just work better in their natural habitat. They just “upgraded” my Windows laptop and now I have Office 2007. I’ve been so incredibly frustrated ever since. I never know which window is active and am constantly clicking on background windows by accident. Yeah, I could work in full screen mode, but I don’t like to.

They give you only 3 color options out of the millions available – blue, gray or black and they’re all just different shades of the same color band. They completely ignored the Windows Theme for other windows – completely insane.

Anyway, so this is my frustration with Microsoft. Can you tell me which window is active? Yes, there are 4 windows stacked…

Microsoft Crap Design

After more than nine years of involvement with AutoTrader.com, this is my last day with the company. Anybody who knows me well knows that I’m not a big change kind of guy. heh. So this has taken some time to get used to the idea of leaving. I’ve met a lot of really great people at AutoTrader.com, and I’ll miss working with them on a daily basis. But at least I get to still attend all of the functions like the family picnic and Christmas party because I’ll be a spouse of the person who organizes those events .

I’m moving over to a “sister” company within the Cox family — a place called Online Vehicle Exchange. It’s still an automotive company, but more dealer-facing with a more specifically targeted audience. It’s really about the best scenario that could have come up. I’ll be working for one of my favorite people in the industry, and somebody I can learn a tremendous amount from. I’ll also be working with a good friend and software engineer I worked with previously. I’ll be doing basically the same thing over there, but in a much smaller organization. I know enough people over there that’s it’s not as distressing as taking a job not knowing anybody.

So June is a big month for me! June 1st, my last day at AutoTrader.com. June 2nd, my bachelor party. June 4th, my new job start. June 22nd, getting married. July, hopefully a little slower pace. heh.

Anyway, just wanted to give a quick update

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At any rate, it’s quite evident that the vast majority of drivers just don’t “get it.” I don’t understand why almost nobody knows how to drive on the highway. It seems so incredibly simple to me – the left lane is for passing, and that’s it. And passing doesn’t take place on cruise control going .2 miles per hour faster than the car being “passed.” What exactly am I missing?

On this particular trip, something odd happened. I spent a couple of hours on a six lane highway – three lanes in each direction. I ended up passing almost exclusively in the far right lane, which was almost completely empty. Meanwhile, the left two lanes had bumper to bumper cars all pacing each other maybe going the speed limit. I’m not talking about passing one or two cars in the right lane, I was passing ten and twenty cars at a time in a completely clear right lane. I was looking over in disbelief as everybody was waiting for the car in front of them to go faster or move over (at least I can only assume). How did this happen? Did I miss the memo?

We got the majority of the house renovations complete. We have a brand new room off the back of the house, a completely renovated kitchen and dining room, and a much more open floorplan after removing a couple of load-bearing walls. There are still some small things to tidy up, but it looks great.

I got engaged, with a destination wedding already in the works. Guess I better practice up on my Spanish.

I guess that’s about it, in a small nutshell .

I wanted it to be a total surprise, but she got a little suspicious because I asked her if she wanted to go to dinner more than 24 hours in advance, which apparently, is quite out of character. The flowers didn’t help with the suspicions, either. heh. But, as predictable as I appear, I’m still quite hard to figure out on some things, so there was ample doubt.

If I do say so myself, I think I did a good job on the ring. I’ve caught her holding her hand out, looking at it several times since . I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to show you.

It’s definitely the end of another chapter in my life. Many chapters have come and gone. Most of them have been great, and I’ve always had a little sadness at the end of each, resisting the inevitable change. So far, all of my life chapters have each provided more rich experiences than the previous ones. This new chapter is different than the rest in many ways, but most importantly It’s one that begins with more anticipation. I’m very excited about the future and what it holds for us, not just me anymore. I’m a much better person with Karen than I could possibly be on my own. Of course, we all know I have a long way to go, but I’m looking forward to the journey.

I haven’t received a speeding ticket in well over a decade, and the experience brought back memories of my rather insane youth. Not that I was driving crazy, because I’ve come a long way in my driving since the old, renegade days. But because the entire process of getting a ticket is EXACTLY the same. Okay, so the police cars are more menacing looking, with their all-black, dark-windowed, low-profile lights and stuff. But other than that, I was shocked at how ancient everything seemed.

As far as I can tell, the entire world has been evolving pretty quickly in the technology boom of the past decade or so. When you get your drivers license in Georgia, you even have to give up a finger print that is embedded as data in your license, along with a bunch of other personal info (just like a credit card stripe). Every police car I’ve seen for a long time has a laptop attached to the dashboard. And yet, the ticketing system appears to be literally unchanged.

When the officer returned with my license, it was accompanied by the same carbon copy paper ticket I was well-accustomed to back in the 80s. After I signed my guilty plea, he tore off my copy and gave it to me. So the cop took my license back to his car, probably ran it through their ellaborate computer systems trying to see if I was an enemy of the state, had insurance, registration, etc. And then proceeded to chicken scratch out a hand-written ticket (okay, his handwriting was pretty good, but you get the point), copying my information letter by letter onto some carbon copy ticket. What, they can’t put a little tiny printer in their cars and save everybody a lot of time and effort? Unbelievable in this day and age.

When I finally arrived at my office, I was quite curious about the cost of this event, so I picked up the phone and called the number on the ticket. The lady asked for my citation number, which I gave her. Yep, you guessed it, no information about the ticket, because the cop’s carbon copy of the ticket won’t trickle down through the paper trail for days. I really hope that my tax dollars aren’t paying somebody to type all of the hand-copied data about me into some other system.

Anyway, I just thought it was odd that police all over the country are still wasting valuable time hand-writing stuff out in 2006.

BTW, according to Wikipedia…
Carbon copying: This practice declined with the advent of photocopying and other electronic means.

I’ve always been pretty partial to monohulls, mostly because that’s pretty much all I’ve been exposed to. Yeah, yeah, I did a lot of sailing on Hobie Cats back in the day, but never on any kind of cruising boat. At any rate, we decided to check a couple of them out just to see what they’re all about. I think I’ve been converted!

We ran across the Manta 42 MKII and it’s just plain incredible. It’s truly amazing how much living space this thing has. Manta is one of the few manufacturers that builds a boat to be more or less cruising ready at delivery. It comes fully rigged with dingy davits and all. Of course, you need to upgrade some of the electronics and decide about A/C, water makers, etc., which can add quite a bit of expense.

So here’s what I’m thinking 0:-)… All I need is for some kind-hearted megamillionaire to take pity on me and help me out . The Manta has a base price of only $359,950! heh. Add on a few extras and I’m only asking for a mere $400,000 – just daily interest earnings for some. For such a small amount of money for the extremely wealthy, I could disappear off into the sunset and live a dream.

It’d be great, I could put together a Web site about our travels and allow some rich and famous person an opportunity to live vicariously through the average, non-famous life I offer. Heck, stop on by at some of the exotic destinations and hang out with us – at least for a little while!

Is this too much to ask? I guess that question is all relative. heh.