I’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to Kelly aka Klingus, my wife.
Since we’re poor I couldn’t buy her anything, so I made her a center-page website-thing linking to her blog, her flickr and picasaweb albums, hopefully she can find other things to use it for as well.
Alot of people don’t seem to consider the following, particularly females when begging their boyfriends to propose.
Marriage doesn’t really change anything.
Marriage is a lot like turning 18 or 21, or any other age really. All that really changes are a) your religious standing as far as having sex, and b) your legal rights as a married person.
You’ll have a big lead up to the wedding, and the wedding and reception will be as big or as small as you want it to be, much like a 21st birthday party.
You’ll go to bed that night (possibly doing something you’ve never done before), and you’ll wake up the next day and feel as though nothing has changed.
I know of a few people getting married soon, and Kelly was asking for advice to give to the bride at the showers she’ll be at. This is the biggest piece of advice I could offer to anyone obsessed with getting married to their significant other (whether they’ll admit their obsession or not).
It. Doesn’t. Change. Your. Relationship.
Really.
If the relationship changes, either you or your partner changed. Which shouldn’t happen. It’s that simple.
Turns out Rent was right. There are 525,600 minutes in a year. I always thought it was too small a number, but I just did the calculation (I was going to use the right one) but 60 x 24 x 365 = 525,600.
Anyway, I’m going off topic before I’ve even started. Today is April 18th 2009. Today marks an important day in history, for me, for my family, for Kelly and her family, and a handful of others. On this day one year ago I stepped onto Qantas flight QF2714 and flew from Wellington to Auckland, waving goodbye to my family and friends at Wellington Airport. In Auckland I walked from the domestic to the international terminal, and boarded flight QF25 bound for LAX. I haven’t seen New Zealand with my own eyes since.
I remember that all three flights that day were late. The first one was late because of mechanical problems earlier in the day that had caused delays and they were trying to get back on schedule. The second was a fault that had apparently been fixed but they were still waiting on a problem with paperwork for it. The third we had to wait at the gate at LAX for mechanics to get to us after their list of other faults to fix.
I remember walking through customs at LAX having filled out my little I-94 card, and being unsure what to write for “Country of Residence.” The customs lady walking the line checking things before we reached the officers processing us was angry at me that I didn’t know, but I truly didn’t. At that moment I didn’t live anywhere. On April 17th I resided in New Zealand. As of April 19th I would be residing in the United States. April 18th? I was homeless, as it were.
Despite all the mechanical problems and delays, I arrived in one piece at Dulles, although I was about 45 minutes late as I recall, landing at 12:30am on the 19th, walking into the arms of Kelly (followed by everyone else that was there).
People keep asking me if I miss home, and to a degree I do. It’s not so much home though, as aspects of home. I miss walking to the end of the street and getting Fish and Chips for a snack because I was bored and hungry. I miss driving to McDonalds and getting a large coke and a large chocolate thick shake for the same reason. I miss catching the bus and train to work and back every day. I miss Sunday night drives to the beach or around the bays, or somewhere else random that we wanted to go, with Sue and Amber. I miss having a cell phone, and understanding how the billing for cell and landline phones worked (I still think it’s really messed up that you have to pay to receive calls/messages etc..).
I miss driving to Paraparaumu via Paekakariki Hill one way and SH1/SH2 back for the fun of it. I miss knowing where everything in the supermarket is, and what most things are even if I haven’t had them before.
I miss the surprise of seeing Dad’s face in the window when my train pulls in to take me to work, I miss the sound of my brothers mock screams when I play a trick on him, and I miss the sound of my mother trying in vain to make me stop when she finds out what I did/was doing.
I miss having the opportunity to drive almost anywhere if I had time or money to pay for gas (and for whatever I wanted to do when I got there), ranging anywhere from watching a movie to eating dinner to going to Parachute. I miss having the contacts to do sound and lighting gigs with semi-professional companies and organizations when they needed the help.
Most of all I think I miss seeing people I know and love that I haven’t seen for a year or more, it’s nice seeing the young kids grow up through photos on Facebook etc, but it really isn’t the same.
So, what have I accomplished in my year of USA-ness? Not a lot, I fear to say. Having arrived in April 08, I was married in May 08, and filed immigration paperwork before the cut off date in July 08. In February 09 I received my Employment Authorization Card, and started applying for jobs. Of all my applications (around 30-50) I’ve had one solid lead (Summer Camp Counselor), and one official rejection (“Position has been filled”). The biggest problems I run into are experience (or lack thereof), lack of College education, and lack of US Citizenship or security clearances. I have no problem relocating 2 hours away (or commuting that far until relocation can occur), since there are practically no IT jobs in this area at the moment.
I have a drivers license (Learners permit, will sit the full test some time soon). I have fixed several computers, some for money. I helped with the church’s VBS program last year, and probably will again if I don’t get the camp job. I traveled to North Carolina for gas money to visit a long time friend and work on his church’s network. I created several new websites, including DailySerene.com, and several personal sites. I also rebuilt the websites for UCCN and C-IRC (C-IRC with the help of Ed), and developed an IRC-based trouble management system in PHP.
We bought a puppy, rented an apartment, gave up an apartment, took out a $2000 loan, moved twice, started a modern worship music section in a traditional church service, bought a guitar, taught Sunday School to High Schoolers, took several thousand photos, and had a few bad times, with lot of good times.
All in all I’m having a great time. I’m glad I moved, and while if I had to live my life again I’d probably do that part differently, I’m not at all unhappy with the way things worked out. In fact, I look forward to what the next 525 thousand-odd minutes have in store.
Yesterday I made a personal site using SilverStripe, and it was my first experience with the CMS that worked. I think last time I didn’t follow the instructions or something and problems arose multiple times.
This time however, worked a treat. It’s not your average CMS, where absolutely everything is configured via a web panel and then stored in SQL. SilverStripe has the basics in SQL (Pages) and the rest is left up to the developer. Once again, a piece of software where its greatest asset is its greatest downfall, and proves, once again, that perfect all-around software does not exist. Either it’s simple for the newbies who want a good looking website, or it’s technical for developers and geeks who want a website that will do anything they ask it to with minimal fuss in breaking their entire index.php-based site with a parse error.
SilverStripe doesn’t have dynamic site names/descriptions like WordPress does. I had to go and edit that in the theme itself. Not a problem, I just need to remember to change it if I change themes.
As far as which is ‘better’, I no longer have a preference. They both do an awesome job at what they do, and I may at some point transfer the UCCN Support site to SilverStripe from WordPress. I’ll still keep the LifeCity site running WP, and probably the I-aL site running it too. WordPress is easy to install and configure, SilverStripe will probably prove easier to develop for.
Don’t take my word for it, test them and decide for yourself!
In other news, we took crash to the vet for his first-week checkup, and he’s doing really well. He weighed in at 28.2lb, and no sign (at this stage) of entropion, thus everything is probably good on that front! Going back in a couple of weeks for his shots, that won’t be such a good time for him 😉
We’re kinda hanging in the family room, Crash, Kelly and I. We’re watching Family Feud on TV, the Porter family are playing the final game. Oop, they just lost, getting 159 points (needed 200 to get $20,000).
I’m also talking to a friend who has a DVD of photos of his son, from newborn through the first year that he is trying to recover. It isn’t going well.
Kelly just moved to the other chair beside Crash, and he started trying to chew the blanket she’s wearing to keep warm. She’s not doing too well, has a sore throat. She really enjoys the look on his face when she pats him on the nose with a rope toy and hums a tune. We’re working especially to train him out of mouthing/biting people, and we’ll also be working in the next few days training him to not jump up on people when he’s excited (or at all, really).
Just took him out to ‘potty’ and he peed, but hasn’t pooped for a while. Now he’s kinda ignoring lunch in favour of laying beside the chair and licking himself. So far he has acquired at least 6 names or variations on names, all of them in the first 3 days. Crash, Chase, Crush, Crash Taylor, Chuck, Trash.. as well as the obvious ones like Pup and Puppy.
I’ve given myself a coding project for the afternoon, after I retrieve the power pack for the macbook. It’ll be a whois and status facility for UCCN, which will begin our web-integration with IRC. The first will be a web form that queries whether a nickname is online, and if so returns normal public information about them (their hidden host name, public channels, etc). The second will be a status image that returns ‘online’ or ‘offline’ depending on whether the user is online or not (duh..). Both will be dependent on the SQL database from Denora, and will probably also utilize the SQL database from Anope for Nickserv aliases/groups. It will detect if someone is online but not using their primary nickname.
I also need to work on the web interface for Supportive, and will be developing an improved version of the java.php @ www.unitedchristianchat.net/java/java.php, both in look and in function.
So, I shall stop blogging nothingness and go get my power pack!
We got him Friday, today is Monday, and what a weekend we have had! The first night he didn’t have a crate so was wandering free in our room, and we were awake every two hours whenever he whined or made noise. He also peed on newspaper, which was OK.
Saturday we got a crate, (thanks Dawndrea!) and he was in and out of it most of the day being locked in and such. He still whined all night and we got little sleep again.
Sunday went well, we got up early anyway as there was a sunrise service at church followed by breakfast (thanks Debi and John!), and so we fed him before church, and then came back and pooped him after feeding Azule and checking on Peanut Butter (a dog and a sheep we have been petsitting for this weekend, along with a cat whose name I do not know).
He got to run around with his cousin Bella, as well as eating a big bowl of sloppy joe that we hadn’t finished at lunch. Dawndrea also called to tell us that she’d looked at Crash’s paperwork and thinks he’s more than likely purebred retriever, as his mother is a retriever and she and her three puppies that went to the SPCA were all from a breeder.
Today he’s been out and about a bit more, I let him loose in the back yard for a bit and had him chasing a tennis ball around, and we also let him off leash while we did dishes in the kitchen (after closing doors and blocking the door-less doorway to the living room). Now he’s asleep in his crate again, and we’re planning to give him dinner and then put him in the car and drive to the park (he’d never walk that far, aside from getting tired we have to pick him up by the harness and ‘make him’ walk because he just flops down and won’t move inside or outside or anywhere he needs to be.
We did have a call from the SPCA today warning us about a potential illness he could have, called entropion. Quoting Wikipedia, “Entropion is a medical condition in which the eyelids fold inward. It is very uncomfortable, as the eyelashes rub against the cornea constantly.”
Basically it will be confirmed at his checkup (which will be free aside from shots) this week, and if he does have it it can be fixed when he’s neutered in June. Kelly suspects he may be OK, as she noticed the eyes of Crash’s brothers were watering and not as healthy looking as his were, I suppose we’ll find out for sure in a few days.
It’s been 24 hours now since we gained the latest addition to our family.
His name: Crash
His age: 10 weeks
His weight: 20 lbs.
He’s a Golden Retriever mixed with something unknown, we picked him out at the SPCA yesterday. He keeps becoming true to his name: particularly when steps or running are involved. He seems to be really good at falling down steps, and likes trying to run between peoples legs when running in the yard. We worked on teaching him “sit” today, as well as beginning work on not biting which he has been doing a lot. Right now he is out in the yard on the leash with Kelly, running around with his “cousin” Bella, Katie’s dog. They played a little at Katie’s house yesterday, and Bella was running circles around Crash, and he’d kinda wobble after her.
So far the cats are keeping their distances, Peel is definately getting the closest out of the three. Kreamer and Emma are just kinda there, and get very hissy when he runs after them.
I’m gonna go out and hang out with them for a while before we come back in for dinner!
For those interested, photos and videos: Here
There are a few words I’ve been struggling to spell recently… Preparation (I keep wanting to type Preperation) and Definitely (I keep wanting to type Definately). Anyway..
We bought dog stuff today. A green food/water bowl, a 5ft blue leash, a rope toy, 3 green tennis balls in a can, 2 rawhide things, a bag of treats and a bag of “Purina Puppy Chow.”
We decided to wait to get a collar because we need to match it to the dog for size (and personality, apparently). We still need to get an outdoor stake and lead, we’ll need a crate, and we’ll also probably need a bed too.
In fact, the only thing we’re really missing at this point is a puppy to use it all.
All the stuff we got for it today cost us less than $20, and I’m particularly pleased. I was expecting supplies and such to cost at least $70-80, and that dog food would be more expensive than it is. Essentially it’ll probably cost us about $20 every 2-4 weeks, which isn’t really that bad at all.
That being the case, we’ll probably have one within the next week!
For the longest time I’ve wanted a puppy. I dreamed of having a yellow or black lab, both a little puppy being cute around the house and a full-grown beast running around a yard playing fetch. Kelly and I would ponder pets names, and we’d think what names would be good, bad, funny, cute, whatever.
Fearless Dave (aka her dad) gave the approval for us to get a dog today, so I’ve been looking around online at the SPCA shelters and other adoption places for yellow lab puppies, and also a little for black lab puppies (I’ll take a black lab if it’s “the one”, but would prefer a yellow lab).
The weird part is that after all this, I can’t imagine what I would name a puppy. I guess it doesn’t matter a lot, most puppies are named by their breeders/rescuers, and if it’s a good name I can keep it and run with it. But if not, none of the names we thought of seem as good anymore. Optimus Prime still stands out, but it needs to be the right dog..
I guess as selfish beings, whenever we see something we like we in turn want one of our own.
Meet Bella. Bella is a 4 month old purebred beagle, which my sister-in-law and her husband rescued from a trip to the pound on Saturday.
She’s pretty awesome, and is learning basic commands like ‘sit’, ‘come’, ‘lay down’, etc. We had her running around in the big yard yesterday on a 30 foot lead (and I took her on a run around the house with her leash). Fun to chase (and be chased by), as well as wrestling with her weird purple Giraffe/Lion soft toy thing.
All in all, Bella is pretty awesome. What I really want, though, is a Yellow Lab.
I don’t know this puppies name, I found the picture on a breeders site, but that is what I want ;-).
In other news, I feel a can of fly spray would be an excellent investment. There are 3 or 4 that won’t leave us alone (despite not working hard and regular showers :-P).
I also lost almost all my hair yesterday, in celebration of a year in the US (it wasn’t supposed to be for a couple of weeks, but for some reason we did it early…).
Photos, before:
And after:
