/home/endperform   Rants, rambles and technobabble

So it’s been a year now since I’ve been in the Atlanta area, and it’s been a good year. I’m doing well at work, even if I deal with complete idiots at times. My love life is fantastic and complete, as Bethany and I are now husband and wife. Fatherhood has been great to me, even if it’s been a little stressful at times. All in all, the decision to move was the best decision I’ve ever made. I have some minor social issues I have to work out personally, but otherwise I’m just fine.

At work, gone are the days of me muddling through COBOL and Perl code on Windows. These days, I’m supporting a major application within the company on UNIX/Linux for various clients worldwide. There’s something interesting about dealing with customers from another section of the world, and this job is definitely diverse in that fact. It’s also diverse because I’m not dealing with the same things day in and day out. Sure, I may be working on a particular issue for a few days, but once it’s done I’m on to something completely different. I hardly ever do development, except for maintaining our internal web applications, and I miss it. Not COBOL/Perl, but coding in general. Guess I need to find myself a side project to play with.

Would I do this all over again? Yes, I would in a heartbeat. I’m a southern convert, even if I still have some Yankee blood in me.

Life has been going rather well. I’m in a happy place, with a loving family and a great job. While I still have my moments, for the most part I’m fine. I did the taxes this weekend and I’ve found that we’re going to be able to make one of my 2008 goals already, which was to eliminate a loan and credit card debt. This really makes me happy, because it’s the end of a loan and also the end of a chapter, so to speak. In addition to that debt, we’ll also be reducing a couple of others.

On the geek front, not much new to report right now. I’m going to be working on revisiting MythTV again. Tivo is 12.95/month. MythTV’s TV listing subscription is 20.00 per year. It’s easy to see which one wins there, but there’s also the fact that I can archive some episodes if I’d like. My computers are back to running Arch again. I like Ubuntu, I really do, but Arch just feels like a better fit for me. I like being able to build a machine to the exact specs I need. As a bonus on the laptop, I didn’t need to build ndiswrapper or ALSA by hand as the Arch versions were up to date.

Here we are, a little less than two weeks until Christmas, and you know what I was wearing last weekend? Shorts and a t-shirt. It’s my first winter in the south, and while it has been rather chilly most of the time, there have been no ice or snow storms, and I think the temperature only got below freezing once or twice overnight so far. I just love it down here.

Not much new to report elsewhere, really. Work is going well. I got a bonus this year along with a great annual review. Family life is excellent, and in general I’m doing fine. I’ve had my moments thinking about my father (welcome to the holidays), but that’s to be expected. This weekend we’re getting the Christmas tree and getting the apartment all Christmas-like. I’m sure I’ll be taking pictures at some point.

On the geek side of things, not much going on. I’m still enjoying Arch Linux, and I’m still playing around with Python a bit, but I haven’t found a project to spark my interest much. I have been working on a couple of things for work, though.

Sure, there’s a couple of weeks left in 2007, but I figured I’d look back at what happened to me over the course of the year:

Moving to Georgia
The first major happening in 2007 was my move to Georgia. I accepted a position in the Atlanta office of the company I worked for, packed up the truck and headed down. The bonus to that was I was so much closer to Bethany. I also shifted positions at work, which I mentioned, and it was a welcome change. No more Windows, now I’m working on various Unix/Linux platforms.

Beth moves in
A couple of weeks after I got settled into the new apartment, Beth moved up with me, thus ending my few years of living alone. It’s so nice to come home and have someone to greet you when you walk in the door.

Goodbye truck, hello Magnum
Due to a number of factors, my truck was no longer a viable transportation option, so I ended up trading it in on a 2006 leftover Dodge Magnum. It’s been a wonderful car so far, and it actually fits me, which is a feat in and of itself.

Emmalynn is born
I became a daddy this year to a beautiful baby girl. It’s been nothing but wonderful so far, and I’m doing well in the role of father. All sorts of new experiences due to this.

As you can see, a couple of defining moments in my life this year. The two biggest are my move and the birth of my daughter. Looking back, I wouldn’t change anything for the world. It’ll be a long time before I move from the South back north, especially since they’re experiencing the lovely winter weather up there, while I’m still taking garbage out in shorts and a t-shirt :)

This year, Thanksgiving was great. Beth cooked, and my mom and sister made the trek down from Pennsylvania. They came bearing gifts, too. Emma got some clothes and a stuffed animal, Beth got some earrings, I got my Yuengling beer (not available down here in Georgia, a shame). The meal itself was wonderful, and I made it through with no problems. Just icing on the cake for me, seeing my family, my love and our family coming together.