Whiter Teeth, Brighter Smile

I threw down $27 US dollarz on the new and improved Crest whitening strips. I've heard a lot of good things about them, even from my sister-in-law who is a dental hygenist. These new bad puppies promise the removal of 14 years of yellow teeth in just 7 days!!! The older version of these things took 14 days. Like who is gonna wait 14 days to remove 14 years of daily drinking of Dr. Pepper. Mmmmm..... Dr. Pepper!!! In fact, I'm drinking one right now. HooRhaa!!

My Birthday and Valentines

Well, I've fallen behind again with my blog by a few days. Anyways, thought I'd catch you all up on the events. Sunday was my birthday and now I'm 28 years old. Man, 2 more years until 30! I still feel pretty young. In fact most people seem to think I look like I'm right out of high school. I don't think so, but oh well. This is nice except for the fact that my work place seems to put more value on years experience, more maturity, etc. Which I think have all that, but when people meet me for the first time, I kind of get blown off. That's about the time, I reach behind my back and grab my sledgehammer of information technology acronyms, and talk a bunch of useless non-sense like every other IT person does. ;-P

Anways, Valentines day was cool too. I cooked my famous grilled ribeyes, garlic mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. MMmmmmmm... I love that stuff. My wife thinks a lot of my cooking is better than most restaurants. That's why my new idea is to open up my own restaurant. I'm just in the beginning stages of even thinking about this, but if anyone knows anything about making a business like that work, let me know. I think if I'm going to make any real money, I'm going to have to start some sort of business and something tells me that getting into the music business after 28 years of age is going to be a little tough.

My Highschool Rating…

You scored as Loner. Loner 44% Prep/Jock/Cheerleader 38% Geek 38% Drama nerd 38% Punk/Rebel 31% Goth 13% Stoner 13% Ghetto gangsta 13% What's Your High School Stereotype? created with QuizFarm.com

My good friend Nino had his results on his web site. I decided to try it out and I guess it is close. Although, I think the "prep" and "rebel" scores should be switched. (ps. I had to modify the html the results give you because my blogger template here doesn't allow for such large images... I need to fix that).

To quit or not to quit that is the question.

Man alive!!! I am so tired today. This past week and a half have been nothing but hell at work. I've been here every day until about 7pm, and I'm still so far behind. Every minute someone wants something that is NOT on my already long list of to do's. And they can't take no for an answer either... or even a wait. How does this happen you ask? (well I'm glad you asked)

Well, let me explain life at work according to Jonathan. This may not be totally true, but it is true based on my observations and comments from other people I work with. Ok, here goes...

Basically, there is a team next to me that has somewhere between 12 to 18 people on it for one application. For those out there that don't know IT lingo, an application is like Microsoft Word, Blogger.com, anything that has code for a specific set of people to use. So anyways, 12-18 for one app. Then there are 5 programmers on my team. 3 of them work on one application in all its glory and one other guy works on 2 (1 of which I help and 1 I will probably take over). Then I have 3 apps I work on by myself, plus I help the one guy that has 2, plus I help the other 3 guys that have 1 all to themselves. Now granted the 1 that those 3 have is pretty big. Or at least everyone makes it out to be. Oh, by the way... the guy that has 2 apps is leaving to a special project soon, so those apps (for sure 1 of them) will be put on me to manage. That means I'll have 4 apps by myself and 1 that I'll help another team of guys with. This is getting to be really hard since I cannot bounce off ideas from people nor offload any work. There was one guy I tried to get to learn one of my apps but it was like pushing peanut butter into a tube of toothpaste. I got tired of hearing, "no later", I'm busy now. Wow!! There sure is a lot of work on that one app for those 3 guys. Makes me wonder if the stuff I work on is pretty easy or something (not).

Anyways, something tells me that I'll never be happy with a job unless I am in business for myself. This is a pitty though. I love computer programming and I've been programming since I was in 11th grade. While most people were changing majors trying to find out what to do, I pressed on with the same old thing though these years. My last job, they saw me as quote, "the most technical person on the team". Wow!! And there were some guys there that I really admired too.

Here I feel under utilized. I still wish I was designing that next big thing that would save the company millions of dollars, streamline business processes, etc. But now I fix bugs and listen to gripes all day.


Blast! There I go again complaining..... I'll have something happy and fun here tomorrow... I promise.

Sick of this crap!!!

After reading this article on MSNBC, I was so upset. There were two girls who took some cookies to a neighbor at 10:30pm at night. Apparently, the lady at home got so scared that she fled to her sister's house and thought she might have had a heart attack and went to the hospital. I guess the lady didn't see the cookies or the note or something. Anyway, the girls families offered to pay the ladies medical fees but the lady did not accept and decided to sue. Appearently she won!!! What the hell is that all about?! I can't believe we allow these stupid cases to waste tax dollars. What kind of person sues to high school girls? The lady was quoted as saying that the girls showed "very poor judement". Ok, I can agree with that (although I don't think 10:30pm is very late), but to sue someone over it. Come on!! I think someone should sue this lady for using very poor judgement for bringing this crap to court and sueing two teenage girls for being nice.

My Family

I've had some questions from people asking what I look like and my family web site at thekeels.com just doesn't have a decent picure of me. This one I thought was nice. It is of my wife, Audrey, my son Ashton, and me on a train at Knott's Berry Farms in California.

Here's something worth looking at

It seems as though Bill Gates was quite the man in his 30's. He looks so young here.

Work sucks... no respect

I'm getting pretty sick of the work I'm doing now. I just had to write about this, as it has been on my mind for some time. Granted this has to be the 2nd most laid back IT job I've had. I have so many projects to work on, it drives me nuts. Actually, I should rephrase that... I love being on many projects and being s t r e t c h e d , but the problem is that most of my applications I support are support by me and me alone. No help! The worst part of this whole mess is the fact that I can't ask for 2nd opinions on bugs, tasks, ideas. I'm completely alone.

In my last job I worked for a rather large corporation... actually THE largest corporation in the world (you can figure that one out). While I was there I worked horrible hours and for huge amounts of time (60-80 hours per week). This job had ok pay, bad medical coverage, and other sub-par benefits. BUT, I do have to say that I was constantly innovative. I usually worked on the largest projects there... known as tranformation projects at that company. I had nothing but respect and people valued my ideas.

What really got me going today was someone asking everyone around me for help and not stopping by to ask me (let me finish the story so you know what I mean). This individual was asking different people around me for help. Sure I heard him, but I was so entrenched in my own dilemas that I figured if nobody helped him, then he may ask me. Well, he didn't and I'm not sure if he found an answer to his problem. But later at the end of the day another guy on my team, said "hey you should have asked Jonathan... he knows how to do that." And the guy flat out said no Jonathan doesn't know that..and can't help me. In to make me more upset, he had some questions earlier about some similar stuff and said the same thing about me not knowing it and didn't need my help.

Now, granted I feel like I've gotten remarkly stupid at this job since I do not stretch myself and a lot of the technology I use is out dated and what we do use is usually used in the not-so-best of situations. But come on,... over a year ago at my last job I had managers and directors begging me for my ideas... to come to their teams... to promote me to where I wanted to go. I wanted to move to Texas to be closer to family, which has been nice, but I'm getting sick of the lack of respect. I feel like I used to be somebody, and now I'm considered a "junior" developer at my new company. I'm sorry that designing the worlds largest company's single sign-on security system, corporate wide J2EE standards, rolling out 3 of the largest eCommerce web sites in ONE year, being one of 3 developers on the worlds largest employee portal systems, and not to mention a multitude of other corporate web sites wasn't enough. I'll go ahead and keep my "junior" developer title thank you!!!! While everyone else works their way up because they have "more years" in the industry than I (which for some reason this company thinks is more important than actual knowledge). I'll never figure that one out.

God I'm so pissed right now!!! I better stop before I start composing my sentences with nothing but 4-letter words.

SoCal

Hey folks! I'm down in South California for some training with my company. I love California... at least this part of it anyways. Although, I wouldn't live here... it is way too expensive. As long as my company is flippin' the bill, then I'm alright. I'm here with 2 other guys from work, learning some software called FatWire. It is a Content Management System (CMS). For those that don't know, a CMS is used to update a dynamic web site, without having to manually type out all the HTML formatting. Usually, you have a few screens and you just type the text and stuff. I would consider this form I'm typing in now on blogger.com a form of a CMS.

Anyways, we've been having fun. We're staying at Embassy Suites and from 5:30pm to 7:30pm every weekday, they have an open bar. Last night I had 4 long island iced teas. MMmmm... so yummy. Today, I'm gonna try something different. Like Gin and Tonic or something. Well, class has started, so I better go.

Sleep and the afterlife

I was coming home tonight from my mother-in-law's wedding (she got remarried) and on the 45 minute drive back to San Antonio, I began to think of how sleepy I was. And then, as I usually do, started thinking too much and wondered why we don't remember things when we sleep.

I'm constantly reading different books about religion, spirituality, and little about history. So I like to try and think of things that people may not normally think about. I'm sure someone has thought this before, but still... I wondered... If we have a spirit and die, then we are supposed to go somewhere. Some people believe in heaven, hell, purgatory, nowhere, etc. Either way, I thought, if we die, our spirit is released and we are still supposed to have some sort of conciousness. So basically, our spirit is separate from our bodies.

Well, if that was the case, then why don't we remember things when we sleep? I mean... our bodies are taking a time out... so where is all that spiritual activity? Does the spirit take a nap too? Granted, we dream, but most of the time, I don't remember my dreams. And they are usually so far out there (the dreams), that I know it is just in my head. I almost think it seems logical that if our bodies where sleeping, then they would be slowing down and basically nearing death (not really, but closer than when we are awake). So while our bodies are sleeping, shouldn't our spirit be able to roam around and see what's up around town. =)

Anyways, just another crazy idea from yours truly.

Working late

I'm here at work a little late. Actually, this is my normal time before leaving, but I got here a little early for a meeting. Things are going good. Projects on time, bugs being squashed (yes, I am a software developer). Speaking of work, I have to fly to Brea, California for some training down at the home office. That should be fun. I'll be there with 2 other guys from work. Training in another city (especially close to LA), is always a blast! It's like a vacation and you don't even have to pay for it. Company picks up the tab.

As for my music, I'm finally getting the hang of my crazy synthesizer. I have to admit, that I'm more used to traditional instruments, guitar, bass, saxophone, drums, etc. This thing has so many menus, buttons, etc. But I'm excited. I'm working on that test song, Take Away. I've created some interesting sounds with this thing. I hope to turn this song into a really interesting piece. Some people don't like the harder part of it, but hopefully, I can balance out the rest of the song with something new.

Oh, and I've added a link to the side here for merchandise. Yep! That's right! You can actually buy some stuff with the Seken logo on there. I just have simple shirts for now. Also, I set it up for at charge. In other words, I make no money off the merchandise. It is a little expensive for being that I make no money off of it, but the way the web site works that sells it, they have to make something too. Plus, they create the stuff on an as needed basis. Pretty nifty! You all should at least take a look and tell me how crappy you think my artwork is. ;-P

Fun Friday

Actually, I have no updates today concerning my music. I just thought I would right about what I felt today. I had to drop a guy off from work at the airport here. While driving home in rush hour traffic I got this overwhelming sense of how depressing the day was. Just because it was Friday and I used to be able to get out of work and go and hang out with my friends for a while at night. At least for a couple of hours.

That doesn't happen anymore. Once you have a wife and a kid, you have to be "responsible" and come home. I actually love being home. That's what I like to do on the weekend. Just sit at home and spend time with my wife and son. But life just doesn't seem right without some play time. Without some "just for me" time. Instead, usually I just come home and hang out, kinda grudgedly, and drink down a few beers.

It is just hard to head home when you know there is energy out there. People getting ready, people heading out. Meeting old friends, getting acquainted with new ones. I've been in this city now for over a year, and besides the people at work, I haven't met a lot of people that I've grown too close to. I have met a lot of people, but it always seems that when you start to be better friends with them, I have to back away. A lot of the people at work have their own lives too. So even the ones I've come to know don't seem to interested in spending time with other friends. They just want family time. Which is ok! I was at that point a couple of years ago, but I feel like I'm in a different stage now. It's just hard to talkt to people about how you feel on issues such as this. How can the world feel so lonely?

In the beginning...

Hello everyone! This is the start of the Seken music blog page. I decided that just having the static web page that I did, was a little boring. My hopes is that this will become something more interactive. I plan on posting news about myself, and what I'm doing with my music and this band, Seken. Look out for great things to come, such as music, art, merchandise, etc.