ninja, please.

tonight i went to a cat circus. yes, it was just as fun as it sounds. i'm looking at how to compress video and will post those next time. Otherwise, here's what's been going on in my life:

career:

i don't think it has been mentioned, but i have a full time job (contract work) and have been incredibly busy with this and some other side projects as well. i've picked up a few new skills with my new job (caution, geek speak approaching):

• working exclusively with php5 and the Zend framework.


• learning a javascript framework, extJs.


• interfacing with db2 on AS/400 IBM systems.


• adjusting to MVC patterns.

gadgetry:

with a new job comes new money. here's what i couldn't resist purchasing:

• 1st gen iPhone, 8gb


• garmin nuvi 880


• panasonic dmc-tz5


• m-audio studiophile bx5a studio monitors


• one more airport express for playing music in my office


• a digital photo frame

i should have caught up with current tech for the moment. i feel as if i don't need to purchase anything until next year... at the very least.

travel:

not much travel, other than a business trip to florida. in a few weeks, nat and i will be traveling to the bahaamas though. i should cover that in more detail once it happens.

life events:

• enjoyed halloween as a ninja (see above).


• my drumming has improved dramatically, but playing with the idea of getting drumming lessons.


• i have completed my curiosities cabinet and it is looking good. will post pictures of it soon.


• work on the house has been slow, but continuous. i should have the bathroom tiled by the end of the year. it's already looking fabulous, although, it's a bit overdue.


• i've been doing push ups ever since i noticed i was getting man boobs. i'm up to 35 reps each set now. prior to this i was struggling with 10. :) i also run up the stairs at work which might be the equivalent of 15 flights in 2 minutes. i usually feel like i'm going to barf after wards.

Campari and pistachios.

I've been contemplating starting a food blog lately. Just recently I've set up data access on my phone and I've been thinking it would be really cool to update my site from my phone with photos of food I'm enjoying at the time.

I've become quite the foodie and I believe that I could write enough about food to dedicate a segment of my site strictly to food.

Above are a couple of my new favorites. Campari, an Italian aperitif, is intensely bitter, but has a wonderfully complex flavor that soothes my belly and excites my palate.

I just recently ordered a 5lb bag of pistachios from the latest woot-off over at woot.com and have been snacking on them feverishly.

self employed, actually.

apologies to those newcomers to see such foul expletives.

after a few months of searching for a reasonable job, ie. not mcdonalds, i eventually gave up and decided to revive jellyleaf, my web design business. i've had the domain and logo for a long time. i thought i would use it when i was employed previously, but it turned out to be too much work for too little money.

but here in chicago, it's a whole new ballgame. i started to do some work for a motorcycle shop here, motoworks and through the owner, johnny, i was able to score a ton of new work. connections are key. in san diego, the only connections i had were artists and musicians. they were the ones asking for a website for 50 bucks.

i still have so much to work on; it's quite overwhelming...but exciting! it doesn't feel like work as much as a desk job. i get to meet new people all over the city and work on different projects all the time.

i even turned down a few jobs to pursue this. of course they had to come asking for me to work as soon as jellyleaf takes off. but most of the offers have been low and the position doesn't seem interesting enough to convince me to join them.

well, off to work again. (it feels so strange to type that)

hunting for mushrooms in the backyard.

yawn! so, what did i miss?!

hibernation can really take a lot out of someone, so forgive me if i sound a little...odd.

i'm officially out of money, and this week i finally put my resume up on the interwebs and have been getting lots of feedback in only a few days. it's good to know that my profession is still in high demand. i started to think that if i'm to be employed for web development, my personal website should be kept up to date. hence, the update. here's what i've been keeping under wraps:

• making candles


• built an xbox media center


• been skeet shooting


• took a fishing trip with my mother


• installed an ipod interface in my car so i won't crash whilst changing songs


• landscaped the house


• been to the bulls, blackhawks and cubs games


• discovered that one of the world's finest microbreweries is located right here in munster, in


• viewed the wonderfully crass jerry springer opera


• fine tuned my cooking and have discovered how to create fine sauces


• saw my first roller derby (very cool)


• completed my mother's website


• set up an indoor herb garden


• visited the mustard museum near madison, wisconson


• took a cruise on lake michigan


• witnessed a friend get married


• and had dozens upon dozens of epiphanies that i can't seem to remember at the moment

apologies to those who were checking the site and not finding updates. i promise to keep the site up to date with much more content in the future.

the laboratory.

i'll just cut to the point: house pictures.

for those who care, the whole "doing nothing" stage has finally become maddening. i've been wondering if this is how my cats feel after a full day of napping and staring out the window. today i decided that this needed to end and have employed myself by fixing my webiste and doing an update. i've completed the image cache code and this has shown a 50% increase in speed with large images! i've also added a little bit of captcha to the comments section so that i don't get random bot spam.

only had a few trips into chicago to do some job hunting with nat. she's found a job and a large salon and things are going ok with that. it may be some time before she builds up enough of a clientle as it seems that she's spending more money getting there than she is making.

we went to 2 excellent restaurants so far: cafe absinthe and japonais. both in the $$$$ range, but well worth it.

i have cleaned out the basement of this place and told the ghost of the dead man to leave. i also built a workbench and have built a small robot that failed to ever walk. after i broke one of its legs, i decided that maybe electronics isn't for me and took a little break from inhaling lead fumes.

by the end of this month i hope to finish my bottle cap mosaic that i've been talking about for years. will post with the results soon.

thanks for listening.