I found my voice

I started this blog years ago to blog about a trip I took to Mexico and also to write a little bit about photography. Well, in that time, I've finally found something to talk about which has been the problem with my sporadic posting all along.

I finally found a topic that I feel is worthy of sharing. I am making a goal to turn myself into a professional photographer in five years time. I will research and learn and save money all to achieve my goal. You will find me writing about the above at:

http://www.beyondthenegative.com

Please visit and enjoy!

I Heart Pain

5:15 my alarm goes off every morning, I hate the morning, hit the snooze button, close my eyes... *beep*,*beep*,*beep*.... s#%t! Fine. I roll out of bed and fall into the gym, I'm not even sure how I got here. Eyes still bleary, I take off my coat, tie my shoes and once again step onto the hamster wheel for a 3 mile run.

The ironic thing about this is that when I miss a day like yesterday due to a business trip, I feel incredibly guilty. Like I cheated on a test or kicked a cute puppy. All day long I feel the need, the need to experience the pain of the gym.

In the end it's more the result rather then the experience that I enjoy. I feel better, more energy for the day and a sense of accomplishment. Like knowing that I could have kicked the puppy, but I chose not to.

I can honestly say that I am a goal oriented person, if I am lacking of big goals then I flounder. XTERRA is a perfect reason for me to get out of bed in the morning and punish my body for being fat and lazy. I could probably do any sport event, but XTERRA intrigues me due to a little more challenge and the fun factor of off-road.

Feed the warrior

Dick's sporting goods is running a few commercials featuring Lance Armstrong, hilarious stuff, really.

Ouch - Exercise Sucks

Started the new routine yesterday, 20 reps of anything seems insane. But there I was... 3 sets of 20 Squats, straight arm pull-downs, step-ups, bench, upright row, etc. I overestimated some of the weight on bench and the rows but compensated to get 20 reps.

Today was 30 min of running. I ran a 12 min/mile pace for 30 minutes, occasionaly with weights. I hate the treadmill, feel like a gerbil, but I saw this great Nike commercial featuring Lance Armstrong. The memorable quote from this ad is "kill the inner coward" but seriously, watch it:


Anyway, the Peru trip is still in its infancy but I think we've found a trip package that will work for us. I'm totally pumped about hiking the Inca trail. I see it as a perfect get away with adventure, challenge, beauty and history all rolled into one.

The family cruise seems to be "standby to standby" with the intent of going early May. Maybe I'm uptight, but when it comes to travel I light to get dates, times, places, cost, etc. all settled WAY in advance. Last minute stuff stresses me out.

XTERRA firma

Wow, just looked and found out the Vashon XTERRA is scheduled for July 13th, w00t! Time to start the training regime, for both the Peru trip and XTERRA.

I'm starting off following the guidelines in the Triathletes Training Bible with a four week Anatomical Adaptation phase. I've already been working out but different muscle groups and different focus. The AA phase starts out doing 40-60% max weight with lots of reps, 20-30. Also, it's time to start running the trails and maybe even dust of the bike for some hill rides.

The goal here is to be fit for Triathlon, and also utilize that fitness for the Inca Trail.

I talked about a Peru trip in the future and I'm still going strong.  I ran across this decent video of Machu Picchu on Youtube, no speech but nonetheless it's better than most tourist crap that is usually posted.

Planting a seed

Sometimes when a crazy idea is proposed its a good idea to jump in head first.  Two days ago, my wife's boss proposed that him and I take a vacation.  Well, specifically he intended for the vacation to begin immediately.  I'm not in a position to leave right now, but it made me start thinking.

Two days later, we have decided to take a trip to Peru and see Machu Picchu.  The initial thought here is to do the Inca Trail up to MP.  The trail is a four day hike with porters.  I'm still in the early phases of this whole trip idea, but I think we're going to do it.

Also in the works is a cruise with the family to Alaska.  We're shooting for May as the timeframe.  A cruise will be a good opportunity to hang out with family, take the little man and have some fun.

In the meantime, the wife, child and I will be going to Kentucky for my brother in-law's wedding.  It's set up to be a beautiful event.

Yikes, too much time...

...Since my last post.  

Ruby started out as a really great thought, and then I had a job interview to do ASP.NET programming.  *screech* ruby came to a halt.  Probably better off anyway.

Sooo... I will be working at Peninsula College as a Web Developer/Database Administrator.  They have some really exciting initiatives going on and I can't wait to start.

I've spent the last month or so getting "back in the game" sot to speak.  Going over ASP.NET manuals, C# programming techniques, agile development processes, etc.

This recent job has really made me realize that the money in the programming world resides in MS languages.  Sure, I know a lot of people getting paid to program in PHP, Ruby, perl, C and others, but their salary isn't even near what I get paid to do .Net development.

I'm not trying to say I'm better, but I am saying that in the environment I'm in, .Net pays the bills and then some.  There may be other locations and maybe my view is limited by living in a rural community.  

Here's how it looks in Port Angeles, WA.  The shops that are using PHP are all running on a tight budget and need to squeeze the very most out of everything they have.  LAMP servers, PHP programmers, high school graduate designers, etc.  Their average salary is proably $14/hr.

Now, lets look at the larger organizations that have/had programmers: PUD, Hospital, College.  The college now being the only entity I know of that has a dedicated programmer where programming is not it's main course of business.  The major difference here is that all the above mentioned organizations are publicly held, hence more money.

So, yes I think Linux is awesome and I've used it ALOT in my lifetime, I also think that knowledge of many languages is valuable.  But when it comes down to it, knowing .Net has allowed me to accel above my peers.

So, who cares? As my journalism instructor always asked me.  Teachers in the community should care.  I became a Linux evangelist in H.S. and I would never take it back as it's given me a lot of insight.  Classes need to teach the dominant programming languages and platforms rather than keep holding out with wishful thinking that Linux is going to go "Mainstream".

Yikes, it's late, I'll post more on this later...