In what I call my first career I became a paramedic (PJ) and later an EMT and was one step from becoming a medical doctor when a state age law to enter medical school prevented me from completing this goal. As the result I was forced to change career direction and became a Mechanical Engineer instead. Then later on in my life my BS and MS in Computer Science. So After working in the medical field in various roles for over 10 years, I fully understand all the propaganda people are lead to believe around hospitals. How clean they are, safe, competent, caring, etc. Yea right!

Let me tell you that hospitals are not as clean as you might think. Although in most situations they do attempt to provide safe and sanitized surroundings. But you have to understand the nature of the best. A hospital is a big money making machine taking in sick people one after the other with every kind of medical condition. What a great breeding ground for Staff and other air borne disease’s. Holly cash cow!

A friend of mine pointed me to a great web site today. It is called thedoctorwithin . And on this website is a great personal article around deceit, deception, propaganda and the list goes on. You should really read this article entitled THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION: WHY AMERICANS WILL BELIEVE ALMOST ANYTHING by Tim O’Shea. The article is copyright so I will not post excerpts so you will need to click the link above to read it!

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How far will manufactures push the envelope with advertising? And the winner is GM. I was reading the morning news and stumbled upon this add from General Motors about their new Yukon full size SUV Hybrid.

 Please don’t get me wrong I am all in favor of green. Anywhere we can cut down on fuel consumption I am all for it. But what jerks my chain is the notion that including a 2-60 KV electric motors is the classification needed to say this vehicle falls into the category. Yes, by definition having both a gasoline engine and electric motors qualifies this SUV as a hybrid. The question that we should be asking is how far will manufactures go to keep us spending money on gasoline.

I have to admit I love my truck. I own a 2005 Ford F150 4W drive pickup. But I drive it less often now because of the high fuel cost. When we purchased the truck there was a need to pull a 8000 # 12 Foot trailer. Not to mention we live in Colorado and 60% of the year the possibility of having to drive on snow/ice is very real. Where we live on the prairie the wind blows constantly and just keeping our small Toyota on the road on those windy days can be a bare knuckle adventure. So having a heavy vehicle with a wide wheel base is important to road stability.

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Blogging has become a main stay in our modern life. Introduced as online diaries around 1994 it started taking the internet by storm around 2001- 2004. Today it is pretty hard to find any web address that does not have an associated blog.

For a full explanation and history see Wikipedia for more information. Click the jump to read!

Over the last several years I have tried several full featured tools that would allow me to post to my blogs reducing the amount of time I have to login to the blog dashboard and I think I have finally found it!

Most of the products available today are focused around journaling. That is OK, but I don’t keep daily journals. I write to share information about new products or how to get something done as simple as possible.

Today I noted one of the feature posts over on MacApper introducing ecto. For $17 you just about can’t go wrong. It is fast, lightweight and supports more blogs than I new existed. It is available for both Windows and Mac witch is especially nice as I use both and will often jump from one machine to the other as the need arrises.

So if you get a chance, I would give it a try. It certainly simplified my blogging.

Every once in a while I visit Dilbert and get a blast of Scott Adams wacky hummer. What’s really wonderful about Scott’s comic strip is just how real it is! Or should I say how much truth is behind his characters. From Dilbert, to Dogbert they all have a message! It is a dose of reality on the comic side of life. But there is more to Scott Adams then just his comic strip. There is a serious and sensible side too. To find this you need to read Scott’s blog. He discusses a diverse list of subjects and I have to agree that most of what he writes about does make sense.

On a serious note, I have spent a good portion of my career working in cubicles and dealing with Bosses like Dilbert’s. Of course over the years I have learned how to deal with such blind idiots and learned to avoid the pitfalls of such stupidity. The main thing is not to get drawn into the cynical aspect of your bosses behavior. As the saying goes there is a sucker born every minute. Not everyone thinks this way. Thank God for that. Our world would be turned upside down if Dilbert’s reality was true blue. All though I confess it might be interesting to see what would happen just once. Maybe shake up society in to thinking for them selves and not just trusting those at the top blindly.

On another note; does this not look like our presidential process? Sorry I am not impressed with the current status quo. Let’s face it, the only real winners are the media conglomerates and the convention centers. As you might tell I am not a big fan of politics. As much as I don’t watch sports on TV, I am really tired of seeing so many commercials on politics. Good thing I have so much more to do with my life then be a boob toob junkie!

So now it is time to head to the workshop. Where my time is put to better use creating something I will be really proud of!

Click the jump here to read Dilbert and the Dilbert.blog. Have a great week!

The last several days I have been fighting between WordPress and Safari. It all started when I setup the new home site for the Geeky Artist. After I imported the existing posts, I wrote a new one. After it was posted I noticed that all the formating was stripped out and I was left with a big blob of text.

Needless to say this ensued into a 2 day troubleshooting exercise that took me down some paths that I did not expect to take. The long and the short, after doing another complete install and upgrade to the latest version the problem still exists.

WordPress just does not like Safari or anything built using the Safari web kit as an editor. I was forced to download Firefox 3.0 Beta to be able to post through the WP Editor feature. I am now writing this post via Mars Edit 2.0.5 and we will see if we still have the same issues. If you have seen similar problems please drop me a note and let me know how you solved it!

If you have noticed lately The Geeky Artist and the New Geekystreet websites have a whole new look and feel. This new look is attributed to a number of factors. New themes, new CSS style sheets, new graphics and lots of determination. It has been said that when a user visits your web site they will determine to stay within 1/20th of a second. So if your site does not have something inviting to keep the friendly user there, they literally will be gone in a blink of and eye! Now days there are some pretty easy ways to get a professional looking web address without having to learn HTML or Dreamweaver.

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At the begging of the year (2008) I made a resolution to continue my efforts to consolidate my web addresses and reduce the operating cost. Another aim was to be able to use the latest versions of Wordpress on my blogs. Yahoo over the last year has stayed on one version and not allowed any updates that would correct issues. So I started the switch. On January 4th, I created the new domain Geekystreet.com on Blue Host. At $6.95 per month and a boat load of additional tools and options it made perfect sense.

Now The Geeky Artist blog is set under the new domain and in the coming weeks I will be transferring the remaining domains all to Blue Host. Documentum 4 Dummies will stay on the old site for now. I am planning a new format for the site so once it is complete I will migrate from the old blog to the new format. You should now notice that both the main web address and the blog have the same theme. I recently started using Rapidweaver to manage my home site and I was able to find a vendor that provided matching themes for both Rapidweaver and Wordpress. Again this adds to consistency. So stay tuned for more updates and changes. If you like the new format, drop me a note!

Happy New Year

I have been toying with this phrase for some time. Realistic Expectations. How does this fit into tradition and the American dream? Lets face it, the US economy runs on gadgets and goodies. If it doesn’t have a bright shiny outside or something hot inside the american consumer will not buy it!

I am not talking about just HD TV’s, Cell Phones and Computers. This relates to automobiles, houses, clothing and a whole host of other consumer products.

Today is Christmas and I reminisce about the past and the future. I think about how far this country has come as a nation, but hasn’t grown in setting realistic expectations. It applies to the old phrase “Peace on earth”. How can you have peace when there is always another bully on the block who wants more.

Christmas is about giving and I am not talking about money or gifts. It is about giving hope to a brighter future. It is about loving and acceptance. For me the greatest gift I have received this year is the support and love from my friends and family. Acceptance for who I am. One individual on this over crowded planet.

The killing still goes on in the middle east and other parts of the world because of religion, money, and want for power. Why? If there is only one God as most modern religions believe? And if this God is merciful why are people still dying?

It only takes one person to say I am not going to kill anyone today. Then another and another and soon killing becomes useless. But I don’t honestly think it will happen in my life time. The conflict over land, and religion has been going on for over 1000 years and my words will not stop the fighting. That is being realistic!

For peace to work within any society there has to be want for it. On both sides. Honest and open agreement that this rock is no more valuable then any other. When you are born you arrive with nothing. No clothing, no food, no money, no land, nothing. That is if you are normal. Of course I am not speaking about what your parents or guardians will give you. You are dependent on them to provide for you until you are able to depend on your self. You are a child and you look to your parents to teach you what is right and wrong. To teach you about life and all that comes from growing to become adult.

Christmas was born out of a date in history that celebrates the birth of a child. It is a religious date. Not a date that says I have to go spend 1000’s of dollars on gifts to keep the economy going. Again its just a date. Just like the new year.

Remember realistic expectations. It applies to all facets of life.

Its that time a year when the mail box is stuffed with those great deals you just have to have. Christmas cards and for some, the year end recaps. My favorite known as the family letter. Giving a brief overview of the years events.

This year I decided I would post my year in review via my blog and save a few trees. Most of my friends and family read my blog on a semi regular basis so why not.

2007 was both a frustrating and exciting year. My work dominated most of 2007. I guess if there is one moment that I am most proud of it is I became a grandfather for the first time. Jackson James was born on Easter Sunday to Jennifer and Jason.

The year started off rather slow. January was a carry over from 2006. The kids returned home after a week visiting us for Christmas. Surviving way too much snow. I consolidated all my web sites in to one with two working blogs.

February Anna left for Hong Kong to celebrate the Chinese New Year and I batched it for a month. I completed work for clients in Kansas City and Washington DC.

March I spent the whole month supporting a client in New Orleans. Returning home each Friday and then back on Monday. The final finally was the last day to return to Denver the flight was cancelled due to bad weather in Texas. No one likes to fly in thunderstorms and tornados. So along with about 20 other people I de-plained and proceeded directly to the rental car counter. 24 hours later I was dropping off the car at the Denver airport. Giving me 18 hours to clean up the house and return to the airport to pickup Anna returning from Hong Kong.

Of course April was Jackson’s month to join the family. It was also the month I was officially handed one of the largest work related projects I have had the pleasure to lead in over 20 years.

May, I was off to Orlando, Florida for EMC World conference. Seeing some of my co-workers face to face and many I had not seen in years.

June was vacation to Portland to visit family and see my new grandson. With a stop off in north central Idaho to visit my friend Don. Although this turned into a semi-working vacation I did get to relax a bit and visit with my mom and children. And of course my Grandson.

July to November was heads down work. So much during this period it is all a blur now. We completed the main project and it went into production. I did complete the deck and some much needed landscaping in the backyard during the month of September & October. As well as completing the bathroom and other improvements to the basement.

That brings us to December. Full circle for another year. Anna and I celebrated our second year of marriage together and now working on three.

Of course there was a lot more packed into this year than I can or want to write about. The main thing is we survived. The world did not end. The housing market took a nose dive. We have not been able to reach a good deal to re-finance our home, but life goes on. My work continues to be extremely busy. There are changes coming in 2008. Both work and home related.

I have started working on my first book titled “The Boomers Handbook”. A carry over from 2007 and some brain storming with a friend. It is in the draft mode now doing research. So stay tuned there is a lot more to come.