Bush Mackel

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. (#):)

Some of you may know, (and most of you probably do not), that ON OCCASION I’ll get out there and run races.

I’d honestly like to do more on the running front but constant problems with injuries usually force me to choose a few “special” races that I’ll do every year.

2008 was particularly bad year for me, with my ridiculously flat feet giving me all kinds of problems - Most notably lots of pain in my toes, instep and knees.

Despite this, I still wanted to get out and try and do my favourite race of all time, the Rockville Twilighter 8K! What makes this race so cool is that…

• There are about 2000 runners who do the race
• It’s a night race
• There are a ton of Rockville regular neighborhood folk coming out to support you

Training
About 4 weeks ago I had run a 40 minute run and after that decided not to run anymore because of the upcoming race. Confused? Well after each run, my feet would be killing me for a long time afterwards (like days), so I figured it would probably be a “smarter” thing to not run anymore before the race, try and keep the endurance up by biking, and just do what I could when race day came.

Group shot before the race.

How’d I Do?
Well, for really not running at all this year and nothing in the last 4 weeks, I was happy I came in at 51:38. Ideally I would’ve liked to have come in under 50, but beggers can’t be choosers and I was really just happy I finished. This year, the race was certainly not easy. (#):)

I’m the one on the right. (#);)

And Even Better…
I managed to get some of my more braver friends to do the race! A couple first timers, a couple non runners, but all warriors. Ha ha. And all of them posted better times than I did so was I really happy for’em too! I had hoped to get some better pictures of us all, but I kinda forgot about that whole thing when I crossed the finish line, doubled over and thought I was going to “lose it” all over the streets. Thankfully though I didn’t - I recovered and managed to get some cadids from a few of them.

While Siona looks like a Warrior ready to go again, Jess looks like she’s ready to just die ha ha.

And if any of you want to see all the results, here are the men’s and women’s.

I’ve once again hit a patch of pretty busy things for myself, and thankfully this time around it looks like those things are definitely of the positive sort.

And I’m beginning to come out of them now so I think it’s time to throw some updates up on here. Well actually… Now that I write that, I don’t know if I’m really coming out of them as much as I’m starting to see the proverbial light at the end of tunnel.

The big things on the hit list are of course the impending house purchase, finally finishing up that pesky website I’ve mentioned on here, Little Mac’s 1st birthday party, getting more business for my design company, and learning ColdFusion *bleh* at work. Why don’t we go in order of stress shall we?

Getting More Business for BWD 0 stress
Right now, my business Bethesda Web Design is doing just the right amount of business for me right now which isn’t too much. (#):) As I’ll point out in a hot minute, I’m putting the finishing touches of the company’s first real client site and I’ve had another person inquire about a new website too which I have a good feeling on. But probably the biggest thumbs up for the company in the past month was getting an old client back on board which means my hosting costs are no longer dragging me down to nearly the extent as they were before.

Finishing Up That Pesky Website 2 stress
This used to rank much higher on the stressful scale but I’ve recently put a lot of work into it addressing the harder parts of the service, and finishing up some nagging issues that I personally had a problem with. NOW the only thing I’m really waiting on is the “client” to get back to me with the rest of the text so I can put the seal of completeness on this one. And don’t worry, I’ll be talking a lot more about this project next week in a Postmordem of sorts.

Little Mac’s 1st Birthday Party 3 stress
I’ll admit it that from jump, I didn’t want to have a birthday party for the little guy. He’s not going to remember it and it’s just going to mean a lot of time commitment from me along with the whole catering thing *rolling eyes*. BUT the wife really wanted to have it so here I am, having to fire up the BarBQ (which NEVER goes smoothly) and having to figure out what food I’m going to make to feed all these people that are allegedly coming. bleh

Learning ColdFusion 4 stress
It should come as a surprise to no one that I’m more familiar with PHP for database manipulation than anything else. (See wordpress). But when I was originally propositioned at work to learn this technology I of course agreed and now I really wish I was doing something else. Of course it doesn’t help that I’m basically learning as I’m going through the joy that is the Internet Tutorial, but it really feels like ColdFusion is forcing me to learn a new scripting language that is just different enough from most standards that I have to stop and look everything up every 5 seconds. And as there’s basically only one other guy in the office with CF experience, I bet I’m gonna have to start doing this a lot more in the future.

Impending House Purchase ? stress
And finally on the pain train is the impending house purchase for which I have settlement on Monday. For some reason, it’s really not stressing me out as much as it should be. Maybe it’s the fact that I probably won’t be moving in ’till Sept or that I’m ok paying copious amounts in the way of bills. One thing is for certain though and that’s that I have very limited time to renew my real estate license if I’m going to be able to get a referral fee off the purchase. Busy weekend for sure coming up. (#):)

Anyone out there doing anything of interest?

I don’t know how I did this, but apparently I did my 12 of 12 on the 11th. *ugh* As my mom would say, “I can’t win for losing”.

But you know what, screw it! I did it after trying to get it done for countless months so I’m very happy.

BTW, if you don’t know what 12 of 12 is, I saw the idea on Pete’s site but the idea originally came from Chad Darnell. You take 12 pictures on the 12th of a month, effectively chronicalling a day in your life.

Looking back at the pictures I shot, I’m content with what I got. I didn’t know until I got out there how uncomfortable it can be trying to take good pictures of what you’re doing since a lot of that stuff involves other people. Oh well, no where to go but up right?

Everyday of mine usually starts with my kid and this was no exception. He’s standing and beginning to walk now and yesterday he seemed very happy to take some pictures for me.

After I got down to where I work I needed to grab some breakfast so I went into the Old Town Alexandira, VA to grab something at Bruegger’s Bagels. Can’t see it? It’s right behind the bus. (Good pic I know)

And this is the building where I work. A couple of weeks ago we had a big ice storm and a fell down the steps leaving the office. It hurt a lot.

Sometime at about 1 I moseyed back into Old Town to get some food at my new favourite place down here, Bugsy’s! Everyday, they have an unlimited Pizza and Salad bar which actually serves decent pizza.

Here I am taking a shot where I eat, upstairs at the bar. Yesterday being Tuesday, I had the Club Sandwich special and did some computer work on the laptop since they have WiFi. I also made some small talk with the bartenders, one of which is just returning from back surgery.

So after I went back to work for a while it was time to go home but before I did, I had to go to Pacers (a running store) to pick up some new shoes I had special ordered a while back.

These are the Brooks Addiction Walkers. I fell in love with the Addiction runners and when I tried on a pair of the Walkers, I had to have them. They have the same fit as the running shoes which is great for my overpronating flat feet, but have thicker soles making them great for standing and walking!

And here’s the guy who called me to tell them they were ready. Boy was it awkward explaining why I was taking the picture. I asked him if he wanted to smile and he says, “Na man, I don’t smile” so instead I got him while he was talking. (#):)

This is what I have to look forward to on the way home - Traffic. Thankfully my wife told me about a way to get around all this junk so I don’t have to deal with it for long. Still, a 45 minute commute is a 45 minute commute.

Welcoming me back home is the wife and little guy who seemed to go from waving to pounding on the window screen.

And shortly after I got back home it was time for dinner. First step is strapping the little guy in his chair. Look at that smile! For some reason, he was just loving to take pictures!

The last picture of the day has me doing what I do best with Little Mac - Bonding over video games. Of course he wasn’t playing them as much as he was trying to break my new 360 equipment but whatchya gonna do?

Hope you enjoyed the pics and I promise I’ll get some more exciting ones next month!

Lately it seems that my life has been following one cruel irony after the other.

The first shoe dropped a week or two ago when I asked my wife over dinner, “Why is that I never get sick? I mean, don’t ever get sick right? Why is my health so MONEY?”

Sure enough the next day it looked like a caught a strain of the flu (that my flu shot didn’t protect me from) which broke me (Ivan Drago style) for a good number of days.

NoobTastic - The Other Shoe
He just HAD to send me that video the other day… I think in literary terms that video would be declared an example of foreshadowing. It shows a baby sitting in a baby chair crying his head off with a onesie that says, “Achievement Unlocked”. As the ominous music builds, the camera pulls out revealing the root of his evil,

The Red Ring of Death.

Death Did Not Pass Over Me That Night
I guess I should’ve put some lamb blood on my door last night for I was indeed visited by the red ring of death. And as sad as I am to admit it, I haven’t been that crestfallen in quite sometime.

My eyes grew large, welled up, and after a lifetime of staring into oblivion I suddenly started shaking my head in disbelief. I looked to the left, I looked to the right, I looked everywhere hoping that someone someplace could help me in this, my most desperate hour. But I come to you today to tell you there was no help to be found in my media room. Not from my kid, not from my wife, not from anyone.

In fact, when I finally found an idiom of strength to crawl up the stairs to my wife and relate the sad tale she only responded with a shrug and “Sorry?”

My friends - That is who I married.

Hey Bush fans! If you’re curious as to see how this harrowing tale of peril and misfortune concludes, check back later this week when you can read the amazing ending, Salvation - Red Ring of Death Pt 2!

Last night, a friend of mine called me saying he was in town visiting and that a bunch of people were going to head over to Dave & Buster’s for some fun.

Now even though I don’t particularly care for Dave & Buster’s, I hadn’t seen this particular friend in a while and the kid was asleep so I figured, “Why not make an appearance?” And I did.

After getting turned around a couple times on the way, I finally made it to D&B and said hello to everyone.

Dave and Buster’s
After we all spent a little while catching up, I took a little tour of the joint since it had been a while from the last time I was there.

OH - For those of you who aren’t familiar with Dave & Buster’s feel free to check out their website, but it’s basically a more adult version of Chuck E Cheese’s. While there MAY be no ball pit, there’s a bunch of ticket games, (basketball, skeeball and the like), and also interactive arcade games and sims.

So as I made my way around the place, it quickly became apparent that THIS - The closest thing to what we old timers called an “arcade” um…how can I say this… SUCKED.

Why Dave and Buster’s Sucks
(Don’t you just love these bolded topics? Next up is probably “Why Dave and Buster’s Sucks Ass” but hey, I digress…) So maybe I shouldn’t be saying flat out that “Dave and Buster’s sucks” but moreso that “I miss arcades and I wish Dave and Buster’s WAS one with all the arcade games they have”. Hm. Re-reading that it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense… “If they have a lot of arcade games, doesn’t that make them an arcade?” Maybe. I guess. But I would argue that an arcade is more than just having a lot of arcade games. It’s about having the right arcade games.

Why I Had a Blast at Dave & Buster’s
(Didn’t see that coming did you?) Well halfway into the night after I had poured a ton of credits into some horrible gun game, I started wandering around D&B’s pretty defeated and depressed looking (aside from being really disheveled looking since I’m sorely im need of a shave and haircut) and found my savior. The one game that has been there for me more than any other and more than most people. That’s right, the king of kings, my favourite game, the one and only - Street Fighter II.

Me and a friend of mine entered the mix with about 3 others that were already there and it was awesome. I’m talking we had the rotation, the one joystick that sucked, comradery… Everything arcade games should be, and everything that arcade games now are missing. I’m talking about the days where games would be a quarter or fifty cents and you would gladly pump more in to get another chance at dethroning the current king (or queen) of the game. I’m talking about the days where pinball machines like Batman were king and when you died in an arcade game, it was because of your lack of skill, not the game taking every incredibly cheap chance it could to deduct lives and health (cue that bad gun game again).

In Conclusion
Look, I don’t pretend to know why you really can’t find arcade machines anymore in the US. But the fact that you can’t sucks. And the fact that there are establishments like Dave & Buster’s that COULD have a little section of their huge place house decent arcade games and choose to not, that sucks too and makes me sad. But at least on one night in late November I managed to find some warmth with an old friend stuck in a dusty corner with other classic games.

…And even if I did get my a$$ handed to me over and over again ’cause there was no air blocks, techs, or two good working joysticks, at least I could find some solace in pulling off a spinning pile driver. (#);)

Some people look at November as the first days into the holiday season…

A time to hang out with family and friends, reminisce about times past, and generally be around those you love for the one time a year where all the petty things in the world just don’t seem to matter as much.

But I say, screw all that.

I just want to hit up the Black Friday Specials!

My Christmas History
Like most kids growing up, Christmas was my #1 seed for holidays. I was fortunate enough to always have really great XMas but I think after this ONE Christmas, things were never the same…

Why I Love Black Friday Specials
Not long after I destroyed the magic of Christmas, I grew older and my family stopped giving me fun things. Instead they opted to give me clothes. What the hell is that about? When you get to know me, you’ll know that even though I’m a married guy with a little baby, I’m still a kid at heart. I love toys, I love games, I love electronics… I don’t love clothes. Now that I’m married, my wife doesn’t really get that either. She always wants to get me things “that are useful” regardless of what I say.

So now that I’m older, I have to help MYSELF OUT since no one else wants to. And to paraphrase Kiss, “[I've been given a gift, I've been given a road, and that road's name is...]” Black Friday!

More to Come
As we continue to approach my favourite day of the year, I’ll certainly be telling you kids more about what I’m planning to do and all the like (since my wife doesn’t read this site) but until then make sure you check out my favourite site this time of year, Black Friday Ads!

Hey, am I just crazy here? There’s gotta me others out there like me who just LOVE Black Friday Specials!