Bush Mackel

There are a number of posts in the queue that I’m really ready to crank out, but I’ve been far too busy to polish them up for your reading pleasure.

Currently, my time has really been split between a certain client site that I had hoped to have done in December, the fantastic goodness that is Borderlands and of course – My kids. It looks like the client site in question is nearing an end which I couldn’t be happier about. It really is a project that has dragged on beyond dragging on. Part of that has been my fault admittedly, but in fairness I know that I’m dealing with one of those clients where you have to gently nudge them at certain times. But I love’em so it’s all good. (#):) (All this time with the site not being done however is hosting money lost so it WOULD be in my best interest to wrap this one up before March).

Kids are doing well and I think I’ve been doing a better job of getting away from the keyboard during the day and giving them some quality dad time. Of course you always worry that it’s not enough but I’m doing what I can and I think it IS an improvement relative to what they were used to. I’ll say though that I think all of us are ready for this cruel Maryland winter to be over so we can go outside and play again. Going on walks and stuff is as good for me as it is for them no doubt.

And finally there is the GEM that is Borderlands. I really didn’t think I’d enjoy the game as much as I have but even on my second playthrough I can’t get enough of the game. I think it’s very possible too that I’ll be downloading all the DLC too! …Which on that note may mean that I won’t be posting again for a long time ha ha!

Yesterday I had to apologize to everyone through my Twitter feed because I haven’t written any posts in a while and haven’t been going anywhere in the blogosphere.

Well blame it on this snow!

If you haven’t heard, we in MD have been getting hit with a LOT more snow than we’re used to. I think last week we had somewhere around 2 feet of snow and today they’re forecasting another foot or something.

Recently, most of my days lately have consisted of me waking up, shoveling, recovering, shoveling, recovering, shoveling and then going to bed only to do it all again the next day. And let me tell you, trying to find places to put this much snow is very difficult. Around my house I have inadventently built a giant wall of snow, towering higher than the cars in our parking lot. And trying to throw more snow OVER that wall well… My back loves it.

And really, I do LIKE snow. But this is just too much and it keeps coming!

When you’re a budding entrepreneur, (even though at this point, I think I’m full-fledged), you often look ahead to nicer times…

Times when you’re not worrying about keeping your server dues paid, times when you’re not stressed about paying your designers, times when you’re not worried about getting new work…

It’s also these times when you look ahead to when you’ll have some disposable income to blow on the good stuff! Week before last I shared some of the things I’m most excited on incorporating back into my life from insurance to my gym membership, but today I’ll share with you some of the good stuff!

A PS3
If you’ve followed me for any period of time, you may be surprised to hear this but yeah – I’d like to get a PS3 (when I have disposable income that is). I really haven’t come around in my thinking on the system, (being as how there are still only a handful of PS3 exclusives I want to play), but the video game hoarder/enthusiast in me is willing to look past that. Plus, in addition to God of War III coming out soon, I’m hearing that PSN Home is looking a lot better than when I last saw it.

Winterizing My House
As I type this, I’m sitting in my basement looking at the news on my Windows 7 box hoping that getting the latest NVidea drivers will stop Windows Media Center from crashing. And let me tell you, as much as I love my basement, my fingers are freezing. The only reason the rest of me isn’t is because I’m wearing several layers, a hoodie and shoes. It sucks. Last year I tried to do something about this problem myself but it’s way beyond even MY industrious skills.

Amplifier for My Car
I’m not sure if it was around Christmas or my birthday this past year, but around that time I got my some Best Buy gift cards. (SIDE NOTE: If you ever want to make me happy, buy me some Best Buy gift cards). And interestingly enough, “right now” there isn’t too much at Best Buy that I want – Which is to say that I’m at a weird point with my electronics (home theater, computer, etc) where everything is pretty up to date, so the next step up would mean major dollars.

So I was thinking about what I would use my gift cards on, and then I thought that I always wanted to upgrade my car audio. Well after I got a new deck, I had to get new speakers and despite getting rave reviews, I was really underwhelmed with them. So I went onto Crutchfield and asked one of their fantastic advisors what the deal was and they said it’s probably because my speakers are underpowered and that I desperately needed an amp.

I even picked one out at the time, but because I left my cushy 9-5 shortly thereafter, I had to put this little baby on the backburner where she sits to this very day. Truth be told, I COULD buy it using reward points from my credit card but we’ve had a pretty harsh winter so I don’t think I’d be in a rush to install it – Yes, that’s how I roll.

And if you think that’s a lot, think again! I still have more to write but I will not subject my fingers to the frozen tundra that is my basement any longer! Maybe another iteration next Friday?

Before my wife got her hooks into me, I used to spend money like it was going out of style. Which is really all to say that I never saved money and just enjoyed a comfortable single guy lifestyle of eating out all the time with friends.

Now that I’m married, have kids, and just “getting off the ground” with web design stuff, I’ve REALLY had to dial it back. But with every new financial foothold I gain back (it’s a rough transition from the 9-5 to this), the more I can dream about life’s little luxuries.

Day Care
By far, the biggest luxury I’m looking forward to in the near future is being able to afford day care again for my 2 kids. Don’t take this the wrong way, the kids are great and I know I’m lucky to be able to spend so much time with them – But trying to program while my littlest one is on my lap turning off my monitors, trying to take conference calls while my oldest is yelling for more apple juice… It can be a bit trying sometimes. And I also look at this as an important milestone because conceivably with more time, I’ll have more of an opportunity to grow my business. Or at least the theory goes.

Insurance
I know you’re going to get a kick out of this one Pete, but I can’t wait to have decent insurance again either. Right now we have the “if you lose an arm, you won’t lose a leg” insurance so for things like going to the Allergist, I’m pretty much SOL. I’ve been pretty lucky that I haven’t been really sick either but just being able to get back on my allergy meds would do so much for my sleeping habits.

Gym
Lastly on my list of “must haves” is the gym. I belong/used to belong (it’s complicated) to a Globo Gym with admittedly, a pretty high price tag. I really want to get back in there because we all know that staying healthy does A LOT for you. But when you’re home with the kids every waking moment, it’s kinda hard to find a yourself out of the house with an hour to lift.

And of course I have a ton more on my list, but if I wrote them all out here, it would be an extremely long post. I think I’ll probably post more next Friday (fun stuff at that) – So make sure to check back then!

Even though this post may be written a day early, it doesn’t mean that the sentiment still doesn’t ring true! I hope everyone has had a great 2009 and a fantastic New Years!

For me, 2009 was a really fantastic year. Without a doubt, my biggest accomplishments were finishing up The Dude Registry, seeing my web design company really begin to flourish, and leaving the 9-5! I can’t tell you how happy I am that I got out of that job. Now to be honest, the job wasn’t ALL THAT BAD, but truthfully – It was killing me.

In other news, I know it has been a while since we’ve talked so I hope you had a nice Christmas. Mine was good but it was WAAAAY too fast. For my oldest kid, it was his first one where he could KINDA understand what was going on. And by that I mean he knew he was entitled to presents. (#):) Oh and check this out – Our holiday card for this year!

A Few Goals for 2010
In the past I’ve said that I’m really not one for resolutions, (since I believe that it shouldn’t have to take ONE DAY to change your life), but this year I wanted to take a second and just set up some goals for myself. First one being to really take my web design company to the next level where it’s bringing in the amount of money I want it to and I can get really picky about the clients I decide to take on. Secondly, I want to show a renewed interest in my own health. I think currently I’m about 190 lbs (at 5″10′), not taking my allergy shots, and overall I’m just disrespecting my body. That really needs to change.

But really, I can’t tell you how excited I am about 2010. For me, (and I believe for you too), it’s ripe full of possibilities which means there’s only one thing to do…

REAP THE WHIRLWIND!

Has it really been 3 months since I’ve written anything on here!? Wow.

But you know, I think there have been “good” reasons for that. I’ve been actively working with clients with my web design company, got a great site up recently that I’m pretty proud of and I’m putting the “finishing touches” on my super secret big project soon to be unveiled!

And what is perhaps the biggest news yet, I am not working a 9-5 anymore! That’s not to say that I’m making enough money to support me and the family yet, but hopefully I can make it work so I don’t have to go back to that horrible world anymore! Now hopefully all of this means that you will be seeing some more posts from me, but who knows if that’s really going to be happening because the thing of it is, (while I’m not making any money), the kids have been taken out of daycare which means I’m seeing a lot of them, and my FREE TIME is not seeing a lot of me.

So I guess stay tuned true believers and make sure to follow me on Twitter!

If you’ve been following my Twitter feed for a while, you’ve probably seen some tweets from me that at times looked odd. For example, tweets that said that I was making cupcakes on Monday when you probably would’ve thought that I’d be at work. Well truth be told, I’ve been on a furlough from my job for the past two months.

If You Didn’t Know…
Don’t be sad because I didn’t tell many people. Unfortunately, I had to tell my wife because there was just no way I could explain away the fact that I wasn’t receiving a check twice a month. ha ha. And not to throw my 9 to 5’s business out there, but my furlough was a result of being on the wrong end of a lawsuit, and big clients not paying because of the worsening US economy.

So when I got the news that I was to be furloughed (with a few other co-workers), I was dolling out the high fives! I was def burned out at work, was tired of the commute and just wanted some time to work on a lot of my side projects. Thankfully during the time off, I did just that. The biggest thing I did was prepare some proposals for potential web design clients and even work out my first paying contract. So that by itself is deserving of applause. Additionally, I also did a lot of work for my new super secret affiliate marketing project which I couldn’t be any more excited about.

Working With Kids
It had certainly been a while since I had worked on stuff from home with kids and it was not easy for a long time. It probably took a good month into my vacation to finally figure out how to be productive with them but when I did it was a really a great thing. Being able to get work done on your schedule WHILE being able to spend copious amounts of time with your kids is definitely a really cool thing and one that everyone should be lucky enough to do. Of course for most of us that’s just a pipe dream since the 9-5 inevitably gets in the way.

Back to the Grind
Yesterday was my first day back to work. I was summoned back a couple weeks ago with an e-mail out of the blue that really just said, “Bush, great news – We’re ready to have you back!” When I read that, I started grinding my teeth. Nightmares of commutes, timesheets, and bosses all started flooding back. BUT, what could I do? My kids need to eat and my mortgage needs to be paid. So as I said, I went back yesterday and tried to make the switch from home life to work life again.

It was difficult to say the least but it was made easier by my awesome co-workers who seemed very happy to have me back. Let it be said that even though my 9-5 itself is not the bees knees, my co-workers are a bunch of very cool and talented people. So after I was welcomed back, one of the guys at work said offhandedly, “Hey, did you know you’d be working for free?” And I joked back that “Yeah, I’m the new intern.” Well, we go out to lunch and they start telling me how they’ve had to hold off on cashing their checks because apparently the company didn’t have the money to pay them.

Are you kidding me!?
I then inquire as to why our System Admin wasn’t back from furlough yet and I was told that “[he's on the fence about coming back because he's not sure why he should if the company can't pay him]“. At this point, I’m feeling a bit hosed. Oh, and did I mention that I had to take a $3000 pay cut too? I kept wondering if I would’ve come back when I did if I had knew that the company was still having these big money problems as a result of the lawsuit in December. I just don’t know. But I’ll say this – With my boss not telling me about these problems in his “welcome back” e-mail… If my paycheck doesn’t go through in two weeks I may just have to take another sabbatical.

Jobs. Ugh.

This past Saturday, I ran in my first race since running my favourite, the Rockville Twilighter last August! It’s been so long because even when I ran the Twilighter I was having a lot of feet/knee problems. But in the last month or two, I’ve had an opportunity to get into some physical rehab and I’ve done a lot of work.

Even still, my physical therapist was none too thrilled that I was doing a 5K but he thought it probably wouldn’t be a damning event so he didn’t forbid it. Besides, this was a team event and if I had bailed I don’t think that the 3 other people on my team (including my wife) would’ve been too happy with me.

Dirty Fun
The Runamuck isn’t your normal race in that there are obstacles like walls in the middle of the race, and numerous times during the race you have to either wade through a waist deep lake or have to run through ankle deep mud pits or both. Cool huh? One of my friends told me about the race, and I thought it would be a fun little one to do with the wife so we signed up. Consequently, the friend who told me about the race tried to sign up for it the night before and couldn’t get in. *rolling eyes* (#):)

For me, I thought the race was a ton of fun! Admittedly there were probably too many people doing it because since the trail was kinda narrow in places and every time there was an obstacle, there was a huge backup and everyone had to walk. For me though, this was great because my therapist wanted me to walk 2 minutes for every mile anyway. Everyone on my team had a good time too and most of them either completely fell into the mud pits or dove into the lake and tried to swim across (meaning they got really muddy). And during the race there were a ton of girls who would just start wrestling in the mud so it was def a fun atmosphere.

The Aftermath
With the weather being beautiful, (sunny and 85), I could’ve stayed out there on the field all day! I think we finished the race at 11ish, and another heat was leaving at that time PLUS you had the costumed heat leaving later that day PLUS you had 5 live bands which I would’ve loved to stay for. Unfortunately, half of my team doesn’t really like music (yeah you heard that right), so my ride pretty much got out of there 10 minutes after the race was over. Thankfully though I DID get a chance to see some awesome costumed racers including the Smurfs and the cast of Mario Kart! Oh, and in case you’re wondering – My knees feel money which bodes GREAT things for the rest of my 2009 race season!

Thanks to everyone who said hello during my Hot Fire Quick Update and those who sent their congrats on the birth of the new kid.

So now that the dust has settled somewhat, I just wanted to give a bigger update on where I’ve been lately, what I’ve been doing and where my head’s been at.

Obviously, the biggest thing that has happened as the birth of our new kid Dart. And with the one we have already, things have been quite hectic at home. But I think we’re starting to transition out of that period where we’re just dealing and finally starting to live again. And compounding all of that is the other big thing which was finally moving into our new house.

La Nueva Casa
Now I’ve never had a house before. I’ve never moved INTO a new house before. It’s like from the day that we packed up till oh…. Right about now, our life has just been a whirlwind. We packed up on basically one day, and we moved in the next. And after we got into the new house, it seems it has been nothing but buying and building Ikea furniture after I get home everyday from my 7am-7pm job. *ugh*

The Daily Grind
I’m sure some of you have that commute and can thus attest to how sucky it is. Basically that commute gives you just enough time to go to sleep before you have to get up the next day and do it all over again. In regards to the family : It sucks beyond belief. When I get home in the evening, all I want to do is just relax for an hour since I’ve been driving on the road for 3 hours (1 1/2 there, 1 1/2 back). But if I relax for an hour, it’s time for the kids and wife to go to sleep which equates to no family time. But you know what?… At least I have a job. And hopefully this’ll just make me work harder to get out of it so I can spend time with the fam.

New Projects
Now with things starting to settle down (in the sense that I’m finally getting back into a daily routine), I’m hoping that I’ll be back to blogging more frequently. I’ve really missed blogging, and coming back will be a lot of fun. Now I don’t know that I’m going to be able to do 5 times a week, but at least for the foreseeable future, if I can do MWF, I’ll be very very happy. I also want to focus on my AdSense/Affiliate sites and start to really pour some effort into them.

And on top of that – I MAY have mentioned it on here, but the newest hotness at home is my new home theater setup! We’re talking about me building a media enclosure out of my wall, dry walling, new receivers, a projector… It’s kinda SERIOUS! Obviously, you’ll be hearing about that in the upcoming days as well.

Thanks for Keeping Up!
Finally, I just wanted to thank everyone again for keeping me in your RSS feeds and waiting for me to once again get my act together. Can’t wait to talk to y’all some more on your sites and on this one!

As the three of you who read this blog may know, my wife has been pregnant for the last 9 months with our second son. Well on a certain Wednesday in Sept (Happy Belated again Christine!), Dart was born at a healthy 8 pounds and 6 oz!

This time around, the wife was induced because the doctors concluded that if she had waited another week or two for nature to take its course, Dart would’ve been big enough that certain complications might arise. But labor went well (even if way longer than our first time) and at 5:14pm Dart came into the world!

Since then, things have been really good. He’s currently waking up only twice during the night to eat, and I think that’s pretty good right? My wife in the meantime is really trying to quickly get him on a sleeping schedule like she did with our first son but things are still quite manageable right now. And our first son Little Mac has seemingly taken a liking to his new brother, petting him affectionately like a dog. haha And before the questions start springing up – I’m trying to make Dart our LAST kid. I think the wife really wants to go for another in hopes that we’ll get a girl but I’m desperately trying to stay out of that trap. (#):)