Video Post 02/07/07

Watch the video

My first video post, Hello, walk around the house, plain and simple.

New Location!

Click the link - save it for future reference!

http://thecarneys.vox.com/

Matthew is 3

Well Sunday was Matthew's birthday, and what a great day he had. We went to Panera for breakfast, McDonalds for lunch, and Applebees for dinner, followed by a trip to the Mini Gran Prix. Nancy and I got him a ride-on battery powered John Deere tractor, with front scoop, and trailer. He was unsure at first, but he rode it around the park for about 30 minutes Sunday, and then today (July 4th) he rode it ALL over Nana and Papa's park, he loved it, and he was getting really good at operating it, as well.

I am currently in the midst of a re-org of my life, trying to get organized and motivated, and such. I am reading all these how-to-get-organized books, a few get-motivated ones, and so far it is working a little. I am using my dayplanner more, but I have made the decision many times before, and used the dayplanner a few days or weeks then let it disappear. I am dedicated to prevent that from happening this time. I will post some short reviews of the books and methods I read and use, and let you know how effective they are for me.

Happy Fourth Of July everyone.

Ron

I am still here...

I am working on moving the blog to a new host, which is why I have not made any posts lately - I am hoping to post each time on the new host, but it's still not up yet. I got a domain, www.carneyland.com, and it will be my new blog.

In the meantime, a few updates...The house has had a few lookers, but no firm offers yet - a few wanted to underbid, but our agent said "no thanks" as we told him. I have been working my tuckus off with 2 side jobs, 1 of which looks like it is almost completed. Matthew has been in swimming lessons for the past 2 weeks, and made great progress - the first day, he didn't want to get anywhere near the pool, tonight he hung from the side and worked his way around almost the entire pool, and then we took him down the super big water slide no less than five times...at his request!

We lost our AC unit a few days ago, probably one of the worst things to lose in Vegas in the summer. In our house it was 93, but the repairman came and 98$ and 2 fuses later, we are back in the 70's inside, so that is good. I took a lot of, what I feel, are great pics. I think those commas in the preceding sentence are in the wrong place but its late and I'm tired. I'll post a link to the pics on flickr, once I sort them and upload them

Ron

On The Market

house_for_sale_01
Originally uploaded by thecarneys23.

Well, as mentioned before, we put our house on the market Friday. It's a bittersweet deal, we put a lot of work into our house, painting, upgrading fixtures, painting the handrail, customizing the storage in the closet and garage - but it is simply too small, and the neighborhood leaves something to be desired. We are very excited about the proposition of buying a new house, and doing it all over again, but with a slightly better idea of our tastes and likes and dislikes, so the next one should be even better. Here is the virtual tour, it's kind of neat, check it out. Also, here is the link to our flickr album of house pics.

Ron

A Quickie about Flock

I have downloaded a new browser, Flock.  It integrates a lot of the new, "Web 2.0" stuff that is getting popular, like Flickr, blogging, RSS reading, stuff like that.  So far I like it - I just wish the people I knew who have Flickr accounts would post more pics! I can view my friends photos, if they are public, from a small bar at the top of flickr, its neat.  And, this blog post is being written in Flock, it just pops up a small, new window, and you type away - you don't even have to leave the page you are on.  For most users who read me, I am not sure it would be useful, but for Bart, maybe Rhonda if I can get her to keep blogging and posting pics to Flickr, it might be cool.  I am constantly trying to find easy ways to connect all my friends and relatives with us out here, and while Flickr is great, generally it works best if you sign up for an account and add us as a contact (thecarneys23). Google now has a photosharing app, an update to their Picasa photo-organizing software.  The best part of theirs is, it is free.  Flickr is also, for a basic account, which lets you upload up to 200 pictures.  Technically, it lets you upload as many as you want, you only get to SEE 200, which pretty much limits it.  We have the upgraded account, it was not bad, 24 bucks for an entire year, and it is limitless storage, and stuff, so for us it was totally worth it.  I encourage everyone who reads this, all 4 of you, to check out the software I suggest, and consider it.  It is really cool to be able to instantly share what is going on with us 2500 miles away from most of you, in Georgia or Maryland, but writing what is the equivalent of a short email, and posting it to my blog.  And the photosharing is just as important, to me especially. So, check out those links!  Oh and Flickr is owned by Yahoo! now, so if you have a yahoo account, it is SUPER easy to get a Flickr account - even if you dont, a new flickr account is very easy to set up. If anyone has any questions about any of these applications or sites, shoot me a comment or email at ron.carney at gmail.com.

technorati tags:Flock, Flickr, Picasa, Picasa2, Web2.0, Photos, Photography, blogging, bart, rhonda

Blogged with Flock

Surreal Life

Wow tonight turned out to be one of those nights you remember for a long time. We knew we would be busy, as some close friends of ours were scheduled to have a C-section for their second child sometime tonight, and we had volunteered to watch their son while they were in the O.R. After work, I came home and Nancy and I drove over to her parents house for Shabat dinner, before going to the hospital, Gig and Kar's neighbors called, and asked if someone could come over to watch their 4 month old daughter, while they took their older daughter to the hospital. It seems one of their dogs, a Westie, had bitten the older daughter, and she had a nasty little bite wound on her lip. So Nancy and I rushed over there, and picked up the 4 month old, who is probably the most laid back infant ever, and brought her back to Gig and Kar's house. Oh yes, I failed to mention that currently, my and Nancy's dog, Polly, and cat, Buffy, are currently being housed at her parent's house, while our house is on the market (more on that later.) And, if that weren't enough, they are dog-sitting for a friend, so they have an energetic young golden, Libby, at the house as well - luckily she and Polly get along well. So, here we were with a house full of animals, Nancy, Matthew and I, and the neighbors little girl, and it was quite a full house.

Eventually, after dinner, Nancy and I went to the hospital, and visited with the Mom-to-be. Her husband was in another part of the hospital, with their son, in an "Soon to be older sibling" class designed to let the first child get used to the idea of the new baby. But they were going into surgery before the class was over, so Nancy and I went down and relieved him, staying in the class with their son, who was tentative at first, but warmed up quickly. This was surprising because he had, until a few weeks earlier, never been away from both of his parents at the same time, so we had dreaded what might happen, we thought he may melt down and/or freak out. However, he was fine, we ended up playing in the room that the mom was going to be recovering in, and he was great. As a matter of fact, it was really good to get to know their son, who is one of Matt's closest playpals.

So now we are back at Nan's parents house, and their neighbors are here, back from the hospital. Their older daughter had 6 stitches in her lip, and they are now discussing what to do with the westie that bit her. I have never been a fan of small yappy dogs - I love all animals, but they're not high on the list. Well I am off, I have to drag Nancy out of here, or it would take an hour to get her to leave. And these neighbors love to visit, so they could be here hours too...and I am exhausted.

More about my camera and putting our house on the market later - we are going to look at some houses with our agent tomorrow. Should be fun! :-)

Lot's To Say...

I will probably break up everything I have to say in several posts over the next few days. Better several shorter posts than on long one, I figure.

I have found out that several of my friends have started 'blogs also - notably, Bart, and my sister, Rhonda. Also, Mike and Bart has both posted Wayfaring Maps, and Bart even has at least one or two pics with his. As I just got my new camera (more on that later) I have begun posting pics too, including 2 today, one of our house, one of the view of the mountains from our house. I will get more up soon.

I am happy that people are not just reading this, but actually looking at some of the links and sites I post about. It makes it much easier to continue the blog when you know you're not just whispering to the wind.

I have many many pics to post. I will catalog them, get them in flickr, then post the links here. We have some great pics of Matt at the Summerlin "Campout" as well as some of him bowling, that are just priceless. He actually got a strike and a spare! Albeit, with bumper, but hey, he isn't even 3 yet!

My New Camera!

I finally got my new camera, and have been playing with it all night. I'll post pics to flickr tomorrow, and post more here as well! Good Night...

My WayFaring Map

This is a map of Las Vegas, with some points of interest related to me, and us. I will be adding more points over time, as well as adding photos to each point of interest as well. The website, Wayfaring.com, is a really neat mashup of Google Maps.

The map above is draggable, or you can click on it, and it will take you to a full size version of the map. I will be posting more interesting "mash-ups" and Web 2.0 stuff, stay tuned.

Changes

I am thinking about making some changes to my blog - I may move it to another service, Typepad, and buy a domain name for it. I may also give it a more technical direction, but I haven't decided yet, I may just make a second blog and do none of the above to this one. Who knows...Right now, as I type, the cursor is moving but none of the type is showing up up, it's as if the font is in white on a white background (it isn't, I checked). Weird.

Well I published the post, and now it seems to be working a little better. Anyway...

We have a Summerlin Campout this weekend. It's tomorrow night. Everyone takes their tents that they bought from Costco (I swear, there are at most 5 different tents total amongst 75-100 tents at this thing, it is very funny) and camps out in one of the Summerlin parks. It is very fun, and a great way to introduce Matthew to camping. This will actually be our third, we went to both of the ones Summerlin offered last year. Matthew has his own blow up Thomas the Train bed, which he has been sleeping in in our bedroom on Friday nights, half as a treat to him, half as a way to make sure he is used to, and likes to sleep in, his Thomas bed. At the campout, there will be a bounce house, hula girls, there is a pool at the park that this campout is at, and it will be open, they will be showing a movie, lots of things to do, so it should be really fun. Oh yeah, and there is dinner, just burgers and dogs, but still good stuff. It costs 15$ each, and we had to pay for Matt this year, because to get on the rides and in the bouncehouse, you have to have a wristband, which you get for the 15$. Last year, he was a bit too small for that stuff, so we just bought wrist bands for Nancy and I, and Matthew ate off our plates and didn't go on the rides.

I found out today that my boss is probably leaving the company. This is bad news, as this is by far the coolest boss I have ever had, and the job will not be nearly as nice without him. Hopefully, though, he will end up somewhere else in the city in a similar position, and if it starts to go south at my job, I will call him and tell him to get me a job at his company.

Well I have to consider my techblog idea now, Have A Good Weekend.

Free Summer Concerts

Free Summer Concerts
Originally uploaded by ron.carney.

The city of Las Vegas has these free concerts 4 times a year in the Clark County Amphitheatre. The crowd on this night was the biggest we have ever seen, apparently the band that is playing is really good.

In N Out

06-03-06_1901.jpg

Here's something the east coast doesn't have - In N Out! Best burgers around :-)
Originally uploaded by ron.carney.

Screw The MPAA

Ok, so everyone knows how the MPAA is suing everyone who has ever listened to music, in some warped attempt to sell more CDs. Well, I have been considering joining a legal music download service, a la iTunes or Rhapsody. Then, this morning, I read on CNN about a russian site, www.allofmp3.com, that is selling music without paying the royalties to the US companies, obviously infuriating the MPAA et al. So I checked it out, and lo and behold, they have a great selection, prices range from 9-15 cents for a song and 1-2.50$ for a CD. Yes, you can get an entire CD for the price of 1 or 2 songs from iTunes. And, this is the best part, you can choose what quality you want. Lower bit rates cost less, but you can go all the way up to CD quality, and its still usually less than 2 dollars for an entire CD. You can also choose what format you want, they have EVERYTHING - MP3, WAV, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, even lossless. I have already spent 25 dollars and that got me about 8 or 9 CDs and a few singles. They even have an app, allTunes (hmmmm, that sounds SO familiar) that lines up your downloads and keeps em coming. The download speed isn't that great, but for the price, I can deal with it. Also, I bought everything in uber high quality so I can burn them to CD with minimal loss in quality, so that makes the files a bit bigger, and therefore slower to download. Check it out!

Ron

It's not a morning...

It's not a morning...
Originally uploaded by ron.carney.

...until I have spilled coffee on myself

Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone is having a good memorial day weekend. We are not doing much, but Nancy's brother David is in town, so Matthew is getting to visit with him. Matthew ADORES his Uncle David, so it's nice to have him visit. We have been invited to Nan's parent's neighbor's house for a Memorial Day cookout, so if I feel up to it, we may go to that. I have been running out of energy sooner than I used to pre-surgery, but since I got my appetite back, it seems to be improving.

Since I have been making so many changes lately, I have decided to add another one, and rededicate myself to practicing photography. I don't have the best equipment, but I am convinced that I don't need a 1400$ camera to take good photos. Not to say I don't WANT the 1400$ camera...but it can wait, for now. Part of my desire to get more serious about photography is the fun I am having with my camera-phone and posting pics to my blog. Nancy and I, on the way to the store yesterday, saw a sign saying that there is an Ansel Adams display at the Bellagio, so maybe that is a sign. :-) We both want to go see the Adams show so hopefully we can do that soon. Hopefully I can stay dedicated this time, and not let it just fall by the wayside.

I think once we buy a new house, I am going to buy an iMac. We can keep it in the kitchen, and it'll be a good way to test out the Mac OS, see if its something we could switch to; if I like it, maybe I'll get a Macbook Pro.

R

466 MHz

05-27-06_1526.jpg
Originally uploaded by ron.carney.

Ok, so this is the home PC of one of the ladies that works at one of the places I support in my "spare time". Yes, that says 466 MHz - as well as 32 whopping megs of RAM. Not sure how much faster I can this thing go...

Back on the wagon?

Back on the wagon?
Originally uploaded by ron.carney.

Ok, so about a month ago, after we got back from Disneyland, I found that I had lost my taste for coffee. Every now and then I try it again. Today was the first day that I could drink more than half a cuppa! :-)

Again

Again
Originally uploaded by ron.carney.

This is a better pic, I think

Fun at the mall

Fun at thd mall
Originally uploaded by ron.carney.

We found a carousel at an outlet mall we went to today, and of course we had to let Matthew ride!

Go Yellow Jackets!

I just finished watching Georgia Tech beat the Miami Hurricanes for the 3rd time in a week; the ACC Baseball Championship Tournament is underway. Tomorrow they play Clemson, whom they have already lost to once in this tournament (it's a double elimination.) And the Braves won too; good day for ATL sports :-)

I had my first post-op doctor's appointment today. It was with a P.A., not the surgeon, but it was good nonetheless. I woke up this morning with some sciatic pain, the worst I have had since the surgery, and it always scares me when that happens, as I am very scared of the thought of living with this pain the rest of my life - I never want to be defined as "Ron, the guy with the bad back." And, I really want to pick up Matthew, but I won't be doing that for another month, it seems, as the P.A. advised me to continue following the ban on B.L.T. - Bending, Lifting, and Twisting - for 4-6 weeks. So I can't lift anything heavier than about 8 pounds, or as he said, a gallon of milk. So, after my scare this morning, I think I will heed him, no matter how lazy I feel like I am being, at least through June. George, Nancy's dad, spoke with a friend of his who had the surgery 21 years ago, and his friend said it took him 4 months until he was able to move with confidence that he was ok. Hearing that make me feel better, too.

My side work is giving me headaches. On one hand, it is such good money to do stuff like go to Disneyland, or buy a new camera, or whatever, that it is hard to stop. On the other hand, it is an additional stressor that is not really necessary. I think for now, I will at least maintain the people I do stuff for now, and will not look for any more work, and will probably turn down any more that is offered. Our real estate agent/family friend BP (thanks Sab ;-)) is always referring people to me, and since he is a real estate agent, he knows and meets a lot of people. But most of the work he generates for me is one-time stuff, and I charge them 100$/hr, so its hard to turn down. The other 2 main clients I have is ReMo, they were my first one, and T&C. I only charge ReMo 50$/hr, but they have lots of easy little stuff for me to do, and its fairly constant, which is nice to have a steady amount of side money coming in. The other, T&C, I have just built a server for, it is supposed to be installed Tuesday afternoon. They pay me twice as much but are very inconsistent with the work. I am not sure how much work they will have for me to do once the server is in, I know they need a network overhaul and I might be asked to do that.

We are at Nan's parent's house now, so I am en fuego. Her dad refuses to turn the air down to life sustaining levels, so I am going to start coming over in just a towel and flip flops, just to see if he gets the hint :-D

Have a good Memorial Day weekend! We just got invited to friends of ours, D & L's, so we will be swimming at their house on Monday :-)

R

Post Op

Tomorrow morning I have my first meeting with the doctor that did my back surgery. Actually, it isn't with him, but his PA. I will have another meeting, with the Dr himself, sometime after that. I am a little nervous, I have had a few random aches and pains and each one brings with it the fear that something similar will happen again in the future. I am going to ask him about Physical Therapy, and what types of exercises might reduce the likelihood of recurrence. I asked right before surgery what my capabilities would be after the surgery and he seemed to think they would be almost identical to pre-op, but I have my doubt's. As long as I can still camp and ride my mountain bike, I will be happy. And, most importantly, play with Matthew :-D

I think I am giving up on Linux. Not that I will never use it again, it is invaluable for my job as a network tool (the network tool being linux, not me :-P) but it is just not a full replacement for Windows as in serveral ways. First, I could NEVER get flash to work, and while I disdain about 80% of Flash on the web, some of it is actually useful. Secondly, I just hate having to go back and add drivers everytime I add some new capability. I tried adding my MP3 external hard drive, but it is NTFS formatted, so I had to find the NTFS package for Fedora Core 5, and then it still didn't work. Oh well, I have more important things to do than support the grass movements of OSS and Linux; Like....

Sell our house :-) We are going to put our townhome on the market in the middle of June, so Nancy has been getting it ready to show. I have, sadly, been of little use in helping her, aside from entertaining Mattthew while she takes down personal pictures, clears counters, etc. But it is exciting to think of a new house, maybe one with a bathroom in the master bedroom! (Ours is currently a split master, our's has a full size shower in it, Matthew's has the tub/shower combo.)

We are also planning a trip to Disneyland in July, for Matthew's 3rd Birthday. This will be his second trip, and hopefully, the first one prepared him a little for this one. We think this one will be a LOT of fun, since he won't be so overwhelmed with everything.

Since my surgery I have been working on being more expressive, and less clammed up, so I can admit I am very excited about this second trip to DL. The one thing that would make it great is if Matthew learned to smile and laugh while on a ride, so we know if he likes it or not - right now, he is VERY serious while on each ride, looking around and noting EVERTYHING, which we found out after we got back from DL last time and a few weeks later, Nancy asked him if he remembered the Winnie The Pooh ride, and Matthew proceeded to describe the ride in such detail Nancy called me at work stammering.

Like many of us do after any sort of life event, I have decided that I need to change some things, one of which is keep in better touch with those who mean so much to me. Another is that I do not need to work quite so much on side jobs; the money is nice, but that is Matthew and Nancy time that is being lost, and as I recently though, no one is giving time away, so I need to make the best use of it that I possibly can.

Good Morning

05-24-06_0637.jpg
Originally uploaded by ron.carney.

This is my view when i leave my house every morning. And yes, it's almost always this sunny. :-)

Masked man!

Masked man!
Originally uploaded by ron.carney.

Matthew in his self-made mask.

Cube Life

05-23-06_1109.jpg
Originally uploaded by thecarneys23.

This is my desk at work. You may notice the lack of family pics, that's only because I wasn't sure how long I was going to be here. :-)

GoMobile

My first mobile post!

I am hoping the greenish cast is just my desklight, and not my lack of sunlight the past few days :-)

Disneyland April 2006

Disneyland April 2006
Originally uploaded by thecarneys23.

This is what I live for, and what makes my life so great right now :-)

Long Time No See

I'm back :-)

2006

Well it is almost 2006, and I have already made my "resolutions", although I am refusing to call them that. I actually have been working on a few lifestyle changes for about a month now, with Nancy's help. Although she has been doing these things for a while now (it's helped her to get down to a size 4, or maybe smaller by now) I have just begun. I am being more mindful of calories, limiting myself to 2000 or less a day. I am also eating more fruit, and vegetables. On top of that, I have started doing push-ups, dips, and bicycle kicks (explained here) in the morning and at night before bed. The results so far, after about a month and a half of the exercises, is pronounced. My weight is down a little bit, maybe 5 pounds, but I have a lot more definition now. This positive reinforcement has led me to make a few more changes, now I am counting fat grams, and making sure I stay below a certain amount of those per day. And I am thinking of joining a nearby gym, but the main motivation behind that is one of my new life goals: to Run A Triathlon. I plan to use 2006 to get in tip top shape, and in Q1 '07 I want to at least participate, preferably actaully compete, in a triathlon. I think it is a very reasonable goal. Also, the Las Vegas Marathon is in December every year, so that may be a good measuring stick of my progress next December.

The past couple of days has been tiring, Nancy and I are trying to get more organized. Our house is soooo tiny, we have NO storage, not even a coat closet! We finished doing our closet, and it looks great, so we are hyped; however, we are also broke after the holidays. We have plans for doing the garage and Matt's closet to better use the space, but until we get money, the best we can do is go through the garage, where we have most of our "stuff" and thin it out as best we can. The good news is, we have done a Great job! Maybe even enough to let Nancy and Matt use the door from the garage to the house, instead of having to leave the garage and come into the house through the front door.

The only bad thing lately (besides no job/income/insurance) is that my back sciatica has been killing me lately. I need to do some stretches to loosen the muscles, which helps it a lot, however, it has been hurting too much to even do that. Hopefully if I keep doing what little stretching I can, it will start feeling better soon.
Back to work, all we have left to do is put stuff back on shelves in the garage, and we will see where we stand!

Hanukkah Night #1

Wow what a busy day - First day of Hanukkah, and we had a party at Nancy's parent's house. It's late and I am exhausted, Matt has a lot of new toys already, and I added some links and a quote of the day javascript to the sidebar ~~>

Thats all for tonight - R

Happy Holidays, everyone! 

The Matt in the Hat

I found my old cowboy hat a few days ago - he looks good in it, doesn't he? :-) 

Christmas Eve

I started redoing our bedroom closet today, it is mine and Nancy's gift to each other. So far we have torn the old stuff out, all of our clothes are strewn across our bedroom, and we put one unit up on the back wall, and one hanging rod on one other side. We still have to add a lot of shelves, and we are currently at Nancy's parents house, and its 9:36pm. So, it looks like we will either 1. Be up all night, or 2. Sleep on the futon tonight. The way I am currently feeling, I am thinking option B sounds good |-)
I hope everyone is having a good Christmas Eve. I need to call Josh, and see how he and his family are doing tonight, and my sister Robyn called earlier today too. I was in the middle of the closet stuff so I didn't get a chance to talk to her, so I will be calling her tomorrow also.
Happy Holidays, everyone.

Second First Post

This is my second attempt at a blog, the first one did not last past a few days. I am trying again, however, and am hoping a few different things will help this one succeed where the last one failed.
First of all, I have no full time job as of right now, so I have a little bit more time - not a lot, oddly enough, but a little. Matthew certainly keeps me busy, and December is never exactly a slow month for anyone, I think.
Hanukkah is approaching, it starts on Christmas day, I believe. I should get a Jewish calendar, so I can keep up with the holidays. I miss Christmas. Certainly not as a religious entity, but the tradition of it all. Nancy is letting me incorporate a lot of the elements of Christmas that I miss so much into Hanukkah, like lights, lots of gifts, etc. We will build our own tradition of Hanukkah for Matthew. Historically, Hanukkah has been a very minor Jewish holiday, but with its proximity to Christmas, it has gained some momentum, in order to "compete" I guess. Either way, I am going to make it big for our family, hopefully, I won't miss Christmas so much as we keep building it.
Two things that are notably missing from my holiday season this year is 1. Christmas music, obviously we don't go out of our way to hear it, and I kind of miss it; and 2. Cold weather - its been in the 60's here for the last couple of days, very sunny, nice weather but it has the effect of creating a weird mental separation from the holiday season. I am sure once we have been here a few years, that will go away.
Well, I am going to work on the layout of my blog a bit, so I will post more later.