I am back…hopefully

Hello world. I have not written in this blog since 2015. So much has changed since then I do not know where to begin. I will begin with saying that I will possibly be getting back to this blog soon. Stay tuned for this as a lot of projects are popping up and things have changed a lot since I have been on here.

Stay tuned….

Computers and the Internet

Have you checked your Facebook or Twitter today? Did you pay your bills online? Did you make a stock transaction, read the news or applied for a job online? Did you send an email? Are you currently reading my blog? Answering yes means that you probably have a device that has the internet whether it is a computer or some mobile device. Also this means that this technology probably is part of your everyday life. Now imagine that all computers and the internet are taken away from you for a month or two. How would you react? 

In today’s society computing devices and the internet are a part life. A lot of people would go crazy without this for over a month and it is sad to say that I would probably be one of those people. We use it for personal, entertainment, and business reasons. My whole job (database administrator) and college degree (computer science) is based on this technology. Without it what would I be today, probably a writer or something… wait a minute. 

Anyway not only is this technology a part of my career it is also my personal life. I use my cell phone to text my wife to always talk with her since I travel a lot. I use Facebook to communicate with others and to let them know about my blog posts. I read and look up stuff for education or entertainment purposes. Computers and the internet are a great thing and makes life easier and more convenient. I do all my banking and pay almost all the bills online. I probably spend 80% of the day on the computer during a work week and that is the minimum. It is sad but it is true. Believe me I would love to go out to travel more and see things but don’t have the time. I am writing this now with this great and wonderful technology that I am sorta dependent on in my life. 

That is the problem though. The majority of the world is dependent on computers and the internet. If it was all taken away in a quick flash the world would go in chaos for a while. I am sure the world’s markets would crash. Communication would be close to a standstill and so on. Think that new series Revolution or Falling Skies or even Walking Dead.  We need it because we conduct so much business with it in our lives.  

The other side of that is as we come more dependent on it could eventually eliminate a lot of things we do in our life. It would be in a world where we never have to leave house and conduct our life from there. Everything could be delivered to us, we could work from home, and we could take special supplements to keep our bodies healthy. We could end just hooking up to a machine to experience life outside of the house similar to that movie Surrogates. Or the computers and the internet could become self-aware and become a life form of their own. Then they would probably take over the world like in The Terminator or Matrix movies.  

Now I know in the three examples above are extreme cases but it is true that most of the world is dependent on computers and the internet. Who knows this also may be a cause of the obesity problem in America right now because everyone wants to be on the computer. Also how it seems the social scene is getting more regulated to the internet and not the “traditional way.” People need to check their Facebook in case they missed something or need to talk to someone. TV shows will tell you to #that and #this just because now it is important to be trending. People need to check their Twitter to see what their favorite celebrity is talking about. People need to hurry and pay that bill online. Don’t forget to check on sports shows or download a movie while you are waiting at the airport. Also don’t forget to read this blog and comment on it because why not? 

I am not saying the technology is bad. I mean I love and I said I use it every day. I just feel that the world is too dependent on it and it seems like it is going to get even worse in the future. I guess that is true though with any invention and advancement in society that makes things easier because humankind seems to like to go the easy way and not the hard way. I do imagine a simpler life and wish the world could go in that direction but I know that will never happen. Now I have to go post this on my blog and let my friends know on Facebook and Twitter that I posted a new blog while texting my wife and listening music I downloaded from iTunes on my iPod while waiting for a database to restore at my work. 

What are your thoughts on computers and the internet in society? Do you think we as a people are now too dependent on it? Do you think one of the three scenarios I mentioned could happen? I think being taken out by Cyber Warfare will be the future of wars and markets will crash and countries overthrown. That is just my thought. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.           

Decisions

Have you ever wondered might have been if you made a different decision in your life? I always look back and examine the decisions and choices I made in life. From minor ones like I should have turned left instead of right to major ones like quitting your job to pursue a dream. We all have made some decisions in our life that changed the course of our life. Everyone has regrets on decisions they have made. However looking back in my life I am happy with every decision I made. Even the bad decisions because they made me the person I am today. It has brought me to where I am today. I have been married for five and a half years to a wonderful wife. I have a great four year old son. I have an awesome family. I have a job that I actually enjoy and love. I am living where my wife and I has wanted to live since we were married. All of this because of the decisions I have made in my life both good and bad.  I am under the impression that everything happens for a reason and I can see that looking back at the decisions I have made in the past. It seems like every decision has lead me making another decision that lead me to where I am now. Let’s take a bird’s eye view of decisions that lead me to my current career. This is very top level stuff and not specific but it will illustrate what I mean about how decisions lead you to where you are. 

As you know I am currently a DBA (Database Administrator) for the company I work for which of course is in the computer field. Ever since I was a kid I enjoyed computers. My dad would always get computers and let me use them. Computers like the Commodore 64, Amiga 2000 to modern computers of today. I decided at a young age that computers were definitely the future. I mean after seeing the original Terminator there was something up with these crazy machines. I always kept up with the latest computer technology and even school officials at both middle school and high school would ask me questions about computers when there is something wrong with them.  My love of computers leads me to apply at UNR for a Computer Science degree. I decided to stay in the dorms for my first year of college. Now this leads me to meet a college friend of mine. By meeting him we decided to live off campus with other roommates the following year. He got a job at a store. I decided I needed a job and he got me a job at the store while he left the store to work somewhere else. I decided to work hard at the job and it got me promoted to a senior position. Later I decided I wanted a higher paying job so because of my experience at this store I got hired at a different retail store. I decided to work hard there and once again I was promoted to a senior position at the store.  

I graduated college after four years and with my degree I wanted a higher paying job (and some other reasons but that is story for another time) so I got my first Software Engineering track with a casino company in Reno. I continued up the software engineering rank getting promotions until I actually got upset with some things in the company. I even started looking for other jobs (which is how I met my wife from southern California which is also another story for another time, see how those decisions affect your life) in other places. Finally I decided to change departments in the company which was ok at first but found out was not a good decision because I could never move back up (However as you will find out it ended up being a good decision).  Finally I had enough of the company and the way they treated me that I decided to pursue another dream of mine which was to be an officer in the Navy. I was accepted and went to OCS for training. This also caused me to get debt free which is another story for another time. I had to get surgery while at OCS and eventually had to drop from the program. It was a hard decision but I had to do it for my health. I went back jobless and me being one that wants to work to support my family I searched for a job quickly in a market that was not good at the time. I even tried to go back to my old company but they decided against it. After three weeks of being out of work I found a database job in Las Vegas where I never saw myself ever living.  

I worked hard at the Vegas job but the company environment was not for me. I decided again to look for another job and I found it. It was with the casino company I am current working with right now. I got it because of my extensive database knowledge and because of my experience working in that second department for the first casino company. This job is great because I do stuff I know very well and I get to travel which is what I love. This also allowed me to live in Goldfield and make a lot of money and more opportunities.  This is just a small snippet of what lead me to where I am now with my career. You can see stuff from just meeting someone in college or getting mad at something at work can change your whole life. It is amazing when you go back and think about it. I will take all the good and bad decisions because they made me the person I am today. Do I wish I could change the mistakes I made in the past? I wish I could say that I do but I don’t. Who knows where I would be now if I did? Sometimes you have to fall hard and crash to bring yourself up. I have had bad times and made wrong decisions where I thought life would be bad. However sometimes you have to fall to come back stronger. 

For the future I plan to work harder on my writing which I have been and it is starting to pick up. Also I still have those plans for the Goldfield area so stayed tuned for that. See more decisions I am making. Let’s see where they bring me.    I want everyone to think about some aspect of their life and think of the decisions that lead you to where you are. It could be a career, your love life or where you are right now. Do you see major decisions that lead you to where you are even the bad ones? Do you wish you could change your decisions or are you like me and am happy for the decisions I made whether good or bad? Comment below and tell me some things you decided that lead you to where you are. I want to hear from you. Thanks for reading and hopefully next week I will have the Stephen King Carrie movie reviews up. My copy of Carrie broke because of the great care the airlines take when handling your bags. Stay tuned for those and any other blog posts.

What the Future Holds

It has been over a week since I started writing in this blog again. I have noticed a few readers coming to the blog and I hope people enjoy it. I know this blog seems disjointed but as the title says it covers everything political, social and things in everyday life from my mind. There will be a lot of cool things coming so don’t you worry. 

As I mentioned I have a few projects on the works. You always know about my book projects which are still in the process. Don’t worry my Fifth Age fans there will be more books and I will finish the series. In fact I am in talks with agents to see if I can go that route. Please check the news section of my book website by clicking here. There you can see information on my book and future books. 

I am also writing a bunch of short stories with the setting of all over Nevada (especially Goldfield). These short stories are horror stories that integrate things in my life, urban legends and other things you see every day. They can be disturbing and others can be satirical as a dark comedy. There is also a lot of twist endings. They are pretty exciting and I might share a couple on this blog.  I also have a surprise about these stories that I will reveal in the future when the time is right. 

I have not forgotten about Goldfield. Like I alluded to earlier in my blog I am planning on some major changes in the town. It will help everyone in town, produce growth and jobs and back to the glory days. It will be glorious and fun at the same time. I hope to get the community to also get involved.  My wife and I have a project we will be starting soon and it will be great. I can’t give the details about it just yet because it will have a great unveiling and something the world can see and participate. We are very excited about it. Stay tuned for that. 

As a follow up to the Resort Fee posting I have found a link that lists the hotels with Resort Fees and how much they are. It is very interesting if you are going to stay at a hotel in Las Vegas to know that on top of paying for the room for your stay you will be charged the extra fees at checkout no matter what. Check out the website by clicking here. 

I started working out hard again to get back into shape like I used to be. It has been a hard week getting back into the flow of things but I have stuck with it and I am already feeling much better. I will update you periodically on this blog on my progress. I will also show you what I have been doing to get back into shape. 

Well that is a little idea of the future. I know it is a little vague but that is half the fun which is the anticipation. This will be an interesting year and hope everyone is ready for it. That is if the world doesn’t end in December but that is another story for a different time. Be prepared for some exciting stuff both locally and across the world as this year will be very exciting. Stay tuned…

It is a Monday Type of Day

Well it is Monday. A day that is usually associated with a bad day. If you are having a bad day someone will come up to you and ask are you having a bad case of the Mondays. There is a song called “Blue Monday”. What makes this day a bad day? Is it the fact that most people have to return to work after having time off during the weekend? That sounds like a good reason to me. I am having one of those “Mondays” today. First I had to wake up at 3:30am this morning to get ready to drive to Las Vegas to go to work. It is the start of the week so I won’t see my family again until Friday. Then to top that off my car would not start. I hope it isn’t anything expensive that is wrong with it but knowing my luck it will be. I am a little down today but not as crazy as some people can get.

To celebrate Monday and my theory that it is usually bad because of people having to return to work, take a look at a couple of videos where even though you are having a bad day they look like they are having a worse day. Some of these videos are old but still funny:

Hope you enjoyed the videos and it brought a little smile to your face on this Monday. Be happy you aren’t that stressed out (maybe you are though) and always keep an eye out to the person next to you that you work with. Especially on a Monday.

As a bonus video even if they are crazy it would be pretty funny to work with this type of guy: