I had been with my previous employer for just over seven years and despite the stresses of being in a typically corporate environment I feel it was a rewarding experience. I learned a great deal at the company from a professional standpoint and I forged a number of great relationships with some remarkable people. Times and priorities change, however, and I have moved on to greener pastures.

It has been over a month since I started my new job and right now I still can not imagine being happier anywhere else. I now work for the Atlanta Cutlery Corporation in Conyers, Georgia. In short, I love working for these people. The company has been in business since the early 70s and the manufacturing devision has been around since the 1940s. It is a family operated corporation and from the first day I was made to feel like I was part of that family.

This company is a leader in the field which includes manufacturing and distributing items such as swords, armor, medieval clothing, knive-making accessories and a LOT of other related items. The main forms of distribution have been through wholesale and mail-order. While the company does have e-commerce websites for their different brands the focus to this point has not been in that area. As previously stated, times and priorities change. My job (to start) is to take the two websites that we have and turn them into attractive, high-traffic e-commerce storefronts that drive the majority of our sales.

• MuseumReplicas.com
• AtlantaCutlery.com

I joined the company as a “Senior Web Developer”, but in fact I am the only web developer. Until now all site development has been outsourced so I have taken on the task of creating a development environment at the company. This has been a little daunting, but so far it has been fun.

Aside from the work that I am doing, the best part of this job is that it is five minutes from my house. I have turned what was a 2.5 hour round-trip commute to about 10 minutes. I get to eat lunch at home and sleep a little later. I actually get to see my kids at a decent hour and spend quality time with them. I get to do some other things around the house besides plop down in exhaustion after my long drive. I get to work on a long honey-do list because I now have the time. Scratch that last one

Anyway, I said all that to say this. I love my new job!

Maybe I can take some of my extra time a actually update my blog more regularly. We’ll see.

I have to go through Gwinnett County to get to work and they just started their school year today. Since I ride a motorocycle to work everyday (weather permitting) I am very observant of the other vehicles around me. Today I noticed something frightening. The driver of a school bus was just laughing happily as she yapped on her cell phone. It is dangerous enough that she is on the phone and driving that huge piece of metal, but this woman’s cheese-wagon was about one-quarter full of children. I did not think to get the number of the bus at the time, but I can say this: The bus was at the intersection of Mink Livsey Rd. and Lee Rd. at approximately 8:20 AM. If you know this woman then please tell her to do her job correctly or to do a different job.

//End of rant

The Atkins diet has been around for some time now and like many “diets” it has had fluctuating levels of popularity. I have met some people who swear by it and I have met others who said that it was just another one of those shim-sham diets that didn’t work. Yes I know that there are skeptics for everything and, yes, I know that Dr. Robert Atkins (not related to me) was reportedly obese when he died, but that does not mean the diet does not work. Overall I had heard pretty good things about the Atkins diet and I could not think of a more appropriately named diet for me.
I have discovered that my mid-section had become…well…larger than it should be so I decided to do something about it. I started the diet about two and a half weeks ago and I must say that I am impressed with the results thus far. I lost about 10 lbs. after two weeks! I am rarely hungry because I am eating all the time (it seems that way anyway). I just don’t eat many carbs. During the initial stages of the diet you are supposed to consume no more than 20 grams of carbs per day. I got a little gung-ho about it and have made it a goal to get as close to 0 grams per day as possible. So far I am doing pretty well. I eat a lot of meat, eggs, and cheese (specially selected). The idea of eating all of that stuff seemed a bit unhealthy, but I did more reading about this diet and found that despite all of the cholesterol intake my personal cholesterol count would actually go down.

What many people seem to misunderstand about the Atkins diet is the “0 carb” period. Many people that I have talked to have had the idea that the Atkins diet requires one to have no carbs…forever. This is not the case, of course. That would indeed be unhealthy During the initial two weeks (some go longer of their own choice) one is to keep a really low carb count (less then 20). After that period, when the dieter has seen some good results for their efforts and has reach their desired weight, Atkins encourages the dieter to slowly increase their carb intake and maintain a healthy diet.So far I have lost just over ten pounds and I am very happy about. I have a way to go before I reach my desired weight, but I know that I will get there before long.

I have also started going to the gym during my lunch breaks. My company offers its employees a free membership to Gold’s Gym. A number of my co-workers as well as my management go to the gym at lunch so we all ride together to get there. It is nice to have not only the support at home, but also the support at the office. Since I have started working out and exercising I feel better than I have felt in years.

Wish me luck. I will update you on my progress.

For more information about the Atkins diet visit their website at www.atkins.com.

/ End of Begging /

About four years ago I made a decision not to subscribe to any television service. How do I live? How could I possibly be spending my time without the tube (or panel as it were)? Well, that is easy, I read and spend time with my family. Yes, that may sound boring to many, but I love it. Anyway, we do watch movies and have a pretty extensive DVD collection. One thing I have missed, though, are the informative programs I found on the Discovery Channel and others like it.

Enter the Podcast…

Until recently I was under the impression that if one wanted to listen/view the content located at Apple’s iTunes music store he would have to buy it. I was wrong, however. A co-worker introduced to me the video Podcast. Of course the video will only work for you if you have a newer Video iPod (5th Generation). I was able to find a ton of FREE video Podcasts at the iTunes store. I watch some of this stuff during my lunch btreak at work. After checking out the cool video stuff I started looking through the large collection of FREE audio podcasts (you can listen to these on both the new iPods and the older generation models). I was delighted to find that there were podcasts from the Discovery Channel as well as other really cool sources. I listen to some really nice feature content to and from work. I also get the current world news! I know I could listen to the radio for the news, but it is nice having on-hand so I can listen at my convenience.

I don’t know if I will ever get into making my own Podcasts. Given the frequency of the posts on this blog you can probably tell that I don’t really have all that much to say in writing, much less with my own voice. But you never know. I might surprise you!

If you have an iPod and you have not yet tried Podcasts I suggest that you take a look at the iTunes store and subscribe to a couple of free ones that interest you. I think you will like it as much as I do. Better late than never, right?

When i got the laptop I was very excited. Not only was I going to be able to use a fancier machine, but also I was going to be able to give my wife an Apple to use. Finally I could take her away from Windows. She used it for a week or two until one fateful day. My youngest child decided to move the laptop out of his way while holding a cup of water. Well, as you can imagine, this did not end well. He spilled the entire cup of water onto the keyboard of the laptop. Nobody saw this happen, and he failed to mention this to anyone. When my oldest son came back in the room he only saw a couple of drops of water on the keyboard. He promptly wiped them up and proceeded to play a game. A few minutes later the iBook powered off. My wife came in to help with restarting the iBook and lifted it up. All of the spilled water was trapped underneath.

… sigh …

I opened the laptop and dried what I could with paper towels. I then let the laptop sit open for about a week and a half. After the dry-out period I saw some light at the end of the tunnel. I tried to boot the iBook and it powered on. Oh yeah!

After further testing I have determined that the zero key does not work (an external keyboard works fine) and the iBook does not recognize it’s DVD drive. On top of that it seems that the wireless signal has become weaker. I can fix many things on a computer, but repairing iBooks is a little out of my league.

I guess I will call Apple and see how much it will cost to fix it (if they can).

In the meantime I will play with my PowerBook and think of happier things.

Anyway…
We replaced some of the tombstones and the jack-o-lantern and our decorations were once again looking good. Halloween came and we were ready. While my wife took the kids out into the neighborhood for the customary candy-begging ritual I stayed at the house with a couple of friends and lay in wait for other trick-or-treaters. We kicked the fog machine into high-gear and the stage was set. We definitely had a record number of visitors for our neighborhood and the scary scene had the desired effect on the trick-or-treaters. We were a hit!

A quick testament to the society we live in today. I opened the front door to another batch of trick-or-treaters and the first thing out of one of the mothers standing there was “I hope you have insurance. I just go so scared I fell down and hurt my knee on your stairs.” The first thing that pops in my head (although I did not say it) was “Woman, if you are so afraid that you fall down the stairs at my house while trying to beg candy from me as your kids stand there and wonder what in the world is wrong with you, then you should not be trick-or-treating.” followed by “There you go lady, teach the kids to sue other people every time you look like an idiot.” The five-year-olds that were with her managed to survive my front steps. Some people…

Aside from that the evening went well. I look forward to our outdoing ourselves next year.

Check out pictures of the Halloween decorations here

It wasn’t that long ago when the must-have toy was Tickle-Me Elmo. I could not turn around in a store without seeing some kind of elmofied fan wear or toy. Elmo, Elmo, Elmo was everywhere. I was not bothered though. I was insulated because I did not have kids. I was protected from all that is Elmo by my childlessness. Call it salvation.

My protection from Elmo ended, however. My son was born. I was still spared much of onslaught of Elmo marketing, but not all of it. He had a few toys that looked like Elmo. But I was yet uninitiated. Now my son is in kindergarten and I have selected from a list some educational software to help my son advance more easily. Elmo’s Preschool is on that list. As an educational tool the software is good. It covers letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and some other necessary stuff. The downside is that the little red beast that the software is themed from talks almost nonstop as the child interacts with it. I have been exposed to the true nature of Elmo’s evil. It is it’s voice. I have yet to understand while the little furry devil has to say his own name all the time (besides the obvious marketing reasons). Perhaps it is good for education and likability…perhaps not. My son has been using the software tonight for about a half of an hour and I am about crack. I have turned the volume down on it some but I think it is just the tone of the creature’s voice that grates on me. Apparently tone overpowers volume in this case. It’s devilry permeates the walls.

I hope that I will get used to it’s maddening intonation since the software is helpful, but I doubt it will happen. I would hate to have to sacrifice my son’s education because of just one bug-eyed little devil-puppet. We will see.

My wife has read many books that I have not yet read and has quite the collection of books at home to prove it. One of the book sets that she has is called the Incarnations of Immortality series. This series follows the characters that embody Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Satan, and God. The author; Piers Anthony, has written a good many books, but I have found that while these books can be considered light reading they are also thought provoking and engaging.

I more recently started reading/listening to another series of his about the land of Xanth. Again these book are just good light reading. This series seems to be written more for a teenage audience, but it is entertaining nonetheless. The series is also quite large as there are currently 29 books in it. According to the Piers Anthony web site; there are more Xanth novels to come. I also like to read more serious books, but lately I have been in the mood for witty puns and fun adventure.

If you have never read any of the works by Piers Anthony then I recommend doing so.

I welcome any comments on Piers Anthony’s novels as well. I would like to have your opinion.