Monday, January 17, 2005

Stopping In...

Greetings, Readers.

I'm just swinging by to say "Hi", and update my blog templates (read: links section) a little bit. Not really much to say right now.

Only big thing is our car's acting real buggy all of a sudden. It started a few days ago, when it just wouldn't start for some reason. Popped the hood to look at things, jiggled the battery cables a little, turned the key again and it came on. Couple days later (yesterday) the same thing happened. Popped the hood, smacked the battery a bit, and it fired right up with the next turn of the key. Now, however, the bugger's dead. I mean totally flat-line, not starting for anything's sake. Power is obviously flowing, as the lights, radio, and dashboard console all work. However, a "low battery" light is still showing, and nothing starts when the key is turned. Not even after a jump.

So, it should be interesting to see how things pan out from here. My wife has a cousin who works on cars and lives not far from here, so hopefully he'll be able to come over sometime soon and figure out what's going on, and hopefully it'll be soemthing cheap to replace. If not, I could be stuck with the ol' two-wheeler for awhile.

Anyway, I'm off to get that template clean-up done. Might even squeeze in a couple updates to My World In Pictures while I'm at it. After that, it's bedtime since I have cell group tonight, and work after that.

See y'allz later!

- Iszi

Friday, January 14, 2005

Studying

Greetings, Readers.

Something else that may add to my distractions from posting in the near future that I should mention, is studying. Through SmartCertify Direct, I am now studying for my CompTIA A+ Certification, and more to come. If I can stay steady with the schedule I've been following lately, I should be ready to take the exams (there's two parts) by the end of this month, if not middle of next.

With A+ Certification in hand, I shouldn't have much trouble working my way out of this rut of a convenience store job that I've been in for the past (nearly) year and a half. I don't plan on stopping there, however. With the program that I've purchased (and a cheap enough loan for it wasn't easy to find, either), I have a full year's access to SmartCertify's complete course library. Again, assuming I can continue approximately at the same pace I've been running for the past week or so that I've been enrolled, it shouldn't be too hard for me to have completed courses for, and passed the CompTIA Network+ and CompTIA Security+ Certifications by the end of the year.

All this would be laying the foundation for what has long been my career goal: Network Administration. Where that might lead me, I do not know. But I do know that I've always had an aptitude and love for working with computers, so that is the best target I could think of to set my sights on.

So, if I don't post too often, this could be one reason why. Still, if all of you could please help keep me accountable to the once-per-week minimum, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you all for your support, and your concern in my absence.

- Iszi

Thursday, January 13, 2005

TLR Website Up!

Greetings, Readers!

Finally, the website for The Living Room is up! Not much to look at just yet, but I can't wait to see what it finally develops into. URL is: http://www.thelivingroomorlando.com/ . Link is also in my Links list on the left of this page, just ignore the "(Under Construction)" note that is under that link until I get to updating my template, please.

- Iszi

On-again, Off-again - My Bad Habit

Greetings, Readers.

First, let me say to everyone: Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Okay, so that's quite a bit belated, but there it is nonetheless. Next, let me apologize for my absence. Several factors fell into play in causing this, one of the least of which was a (much-needed) re-formatting of my computer, yet the most of which would be a bad habit of mine when it comes to most projects I undertake which require my regular attention. You see, I have this bad habit of going through an "on-again, off again" cycle with many things I involve myself in. Such things included, to one degree or another, have been: church, online games (fortunately freebies, not subscription-ware like UO or EQ), forum memberships, and - of course - my blogs.

For a few of these, the cycle isn't such a bad thing to go through. For instance, leaving one game for another for awhile doesn't hurt my life or personal development in the least. Taking a break from posting in a forum I frequent doesn't hurt much aside from leaving some people that I've gotten to know there to wonder what's going on in my life. For others, however, the cycle does have an adverse effect on my life, whether noticeable or not. For instance, when I go through an "off-again" phase with church, I do end up feeling slightly disconnected from my "family", or feeling like I'm not doing as much as I should during times that I am usually helping out. "Off-again" phases with my Bible reading and prayer life (which typically have dominated my life, unfortunately still to this day) put a tight freeze on my spiritual growth, although the rest of my life seems to be running along reasonably fine. And this "off-again" phase with my blogs has left you all wondering what's going on here (thanks for the e-mails, by the way) and also left me feeling like something's just been missing here, yet I can't return to it because there's so much to catch up on.

So, here's the deal now. From here on, I will do my best to keep my posting to a minimum frequency of once a week. For my regular readers (if I still have any of you left), I would appreciate if you could help keep me accountable for this. If there's one week that I'm missing a post for, please e-mail me and just give me a little "tap on the shoulder" so to speak.

As for bringing things up to date here, I may or may not cover quite all the ground left open between my last post and this one. If I'm not mistaken, there's still a draft of my election post lying around here somewhere, so I may finish that up or otherwise break the topics up into separate posts. I will also try to bring My World In Pictures up to date also, but that's a LOT of pictures to sort through and upload, so that may take some time.

Thank you all for sticking with me through my absence, and thank you in advance for helping hold me to my commitments here.

- Iszi