rob.nester

Seriously, why does the water in Florida smell so bad?I think that the sulfurious odor of the water here might be a clue that man wasn't supposed to settle here.

On a more positive and upbeat note, the current weather is warm and sunny, which is a nice change of pace from Boston.

I'm finishing this post on Christmas Eve and I realize that this is the first Christmas that I've not celebrated in North Carolina in my life. I miss that state, more than I ever thought that I would; the place, the weather, the land, the people. I miss my family i miss friends that I could call up and just go hang out with. I miss Flaming Amy's and those wonderful burritos.

North Carolina, Merry Christmas!!

It's 5am, why am I awake? I'm sitting in Logan airport waiting on a plane to go to Florida where it is supposed to be forty-five degrees warmer than it will be in Boston.

A week of vacation serves as a prelude to my finally going permanent at my job; an event that will make me very happy.

I think that there should be two rules regarding airports:
1. Go ahead and give your children Benadryl. We don't want to hear your children at 5am. I don't care how cute they may be, it's far too early and I've not had enough coffee to deal with adults, let alone children.
2. Dear Preppy White Chick, don't seem surprised that airport security shows alarm when they discover the taser in your carry-on. Be glad that they didn't tackle you and leave you hog-tied in the "waiting area". Oh, and don't seem shocked when they inform you that it is a "deadly weapon".
3. Bringing a small yappy dog to the airport is ok. However, if you choose to do this, please realize that your fellow passengers do reserve the right to feed it any and all prescription medication they can find. Oh, and it us acceptable to kick you repeatedly for your decision.
4. I don't want to hear you rap while we are waiting on the flight to board. It has nothing to do with the fact that I'm White, or that I'm not a huge rap fan. It gas to do with the fact that you're rhythm sucks and your voice sounds like shit.

I'll post more during this trip, so until then, take care.

I figured that while I had some downtime, I might as well go ahead and put together a list of resolutions for 2007

• Like many Americans, I too will attempt to lose weight and get in better shape. To acheive this I plan to:

• Eat healthier - Smaller portions and healthier preparation - I've fallen victim to eating a lot of fast food and fried foods lately.
• Get back to drinking no sodas. I felt better when I was drinking water, juice and milk.
• Walk. Simply stated, I need to get my ass in gear more.

• Try to read a book a week. I know this will most likely get scaled back, but if I try to read one a week I figure I might end up reading one every two weeks.
• Because I don't have a lot of income to buy books, I plan on doing the obvious - sitting in Barnes & Noble to read them

• Get to work on learning more about Web 2.0 - I really hate that I've not learned more about ROR, Ajax, etc and it needs to be corrected.
• Work on wood carving. I really enjoyed making the two little things I've made so far. If I can get the knack of sharpening the chisels, and learning how to use the carving knife, I think I might be able to make more cool things.
• Find more time for photography - even if it means going back and doing night shoots.
• Actually finish the items I've started to crochet. I can't believe how many half completed project I have.
• Stop throwing kittens in the river and beating up homeless people. Just kidding, that's just too much fun. Seriously, I'm just kidding. I've never hurt a homeless person.(or a kitten, quit worrying...)

I think that should be a pretty good start, I figure if I can get 80% completion I'll be doing well. I mean, after all 80% would mean that I completed four of my five goals. Hmm, ok so I figure I can get 60% completion. Yeah, that sounds better.

If today is supposed to serve as a taste of the year to come, it might just be alright.

So far today has been very quiet. The new line of business that I was pulled into for work rolled out today and I don’t think we’ve done anything other than surf the internet today. Hopefully things will pick up because after spending three weeks going through training, the last thing that I want is to turn around and it be all for naught.

I’ve been thinking about resolutions, the New Year prompts them I suppose. First among my resolutions would be the need to lose some weight. I looked at a picture of myself from about four or five years ago earlier today and while I’ve never been a skinny guy, I was a good bit thinner then. I liked the way I looked – shaved head and all.

I think the other reason that I’ve started thinking about the whole “things I need to do” thing is that I have a birthday happening soon. I don’t know why a random number like “27” bothers me, but it does. I think that perhaps it’s because it’s like a mile marker on the path to the frightening “Big 3-0”. It has started to fill like I’ve got this voice whispering in my ear and it is saying, “C’mon, get the lead out, get something going, get a direction, get stuff in order, get things happening”. The bad part about this is I really have no idea what to get started, what order to get things in and where to go. It reminds me of when a friend of mine and I used to sit and talk about how we felt bad on the one hand that we hadn’t gotten more done in life, but, on the other hand, we were both scared as shit of whatever “more” was.

Maybe this is what “growing up” really is. Maybe it’s all about not knowing anything really and just having to wing it. Life improvisation I suppose you could call it. Either way, I really hope that a few things come together this year so maybe I won’t be so freaked out about approaching 30.