Work smarter, not harder

It would have made alot more sense to write a post about getting a new job early on rather than explain to every person who asks about it individually. Oh well.

So the deal is that I was a part-time IT person and part-time Maintenance guy at Peoria Christian School for the year and a half after I lost my job as a contract IT analyst at Cat. God's gracious provision brought more than just income but alot of experience, character development and friends as well.

While the school continues to undergo financial challenges for the coming year, one of the remedies they have sought is cutting costs through the use of a contract cleaning company. I knew it was coming, but wasn't quite sure how deep the cuts would be. I had applied to at least 7 IT positions shortly before finding out for certain a month ago that I would not have a job at the school after June, but to this day, none of them have responded in any way. About an hour after finding out, however, a 4th grader's concerned parent had already started working on getting me in touch with the owner of a company who is now my boss. The interview and training process happened so fast that it was a week before some people found out what happened.

Here's my new office at CityBlue Technologies. It's just downtown off of Adams Street across from the City Link Bus station. It's the only building the company leases which hasn't been recently renovated. So we're basically living in a warehouse right now.

The view ain't bad. Just the fact that there is sunlight coming in behind my desk is awesome. On the left I can stalk Linsday, and to the right, Storm's old place.

CBT supplies architects (mainly) with printing and supplies as well as dealing in large printers and plotters. We have offices in Peoria, Moline, Champaign and St. Louis. And I'm the IT guy for all of them. Surprised? Me too.

With remote offices, I get to travel to them at least once a month to check on things and make sure everyone gets their local computer problems resolved. This is good because I like to travel. Sure, Slovenia, Ecuador. Those places are pretty cool. But as I told someone at lunch Sunday, you could entertain me by showing me a shopping center or restaurant design I've never seen before.

Moline's traffic is awful. After getting bounced around for half an hour by outdated google maps, I feel confident that I can judge the consistent driving and intersection design. But there was a redeeming feature. Check it out.

Thanks to the vast diversity of systems a small business this size utilizes, I have ALOT to learn. There's seven books I just bought sitting on my desk right now, with half a dozen still in the mail. It's gonna be a long time before I feel comfortable with this job. God never promised to make me comfortable though, just provided for and content if I'll have it.

Anyone feel like this is the LAST fortune cookie Kevin needed to get at lunch with Josh over the weekend?

Loose Ends

Let's get goin' on this To finish off some ski trip updates-

Remember that overturned semi? It was visible from the resort anywhere. What I probably didn't mention was that if it had fallen down the rest of the way, we would have been renting a van for the ride home due to our perfect parking spot.

Here's a couple of links to explain the incident and a freaky picture.

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20100415/NEWS/100419758/-1/rss
http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-loveland-040910,0,5321848.story

This only encouraged Benjamin, I'm sure. It appears to be just a normal lazy evening, but Ben's planning something...I can tell.

Until he started gearing up like an army ranger about to be inserted behind enemy lines, we didn't know for sure that he was actually going to attempt the promised late night hike up Keystone mountain.

Holly and Becky, Ben's covert insertion team, were the last two people to ever see him. The goal? Make it to the top within an hour.

Eeeeyup. He's a gonner.

Oh sweet, "Shooter" is on! I love that movie.

Back on the home front, Derek's got some crazy fashion sense. These High schoolers got it all figured out.

So do Josh and I

Nnnnnnot so much. Check out Connie in the back about ready to fall over laughing.

Augh... Tomorrow I go in for the second and final part of my drama with a cracked cavity tooth. Yes Brittany, I will probably be calling you again with unkind words after I leave even though you had absolutely nothing to do with it.

It's cloud season again!! Great ready for it folks.

Part 2

Gettin' Us Some Part 1

So it's time to get some of this video out for the world to see. It was hard to cover the fact that I was really only taking video to see people fall. Hard to cover because of how sick I was of missing falls or people just not doing it. I mean come on....

Becky had some of the most spectacular falls including sliding down what looked like 20 yards of a vertical mountain. Unfortunately, I saw very little of it. Here's a little of what I did get, as well and Ryan and Wes' entertainment in the background :-)

Becky was pretty new since she had not skied in many years. The end of that vid, however, was a good example of how much improvement was made over the week.

Someone else who made lots of improvement was Holly. I think this was only her second time on the board. By the end she was cuttin' like a rock star though.

Jeffrey came over tonight to share his pics and vids. Here we have a perfect example of the beauty and awe of God's creation of the Rocky Mountains from A-basin. And, the fun lovin' attitude Jeff brings for us every year. Watch to the end.

More to come-Becky slides down and Ben tried to get another bloody nose.

R2D2 vs. Yoda

To tide you over until I get around to some fun stuff, here is a sample of what we got to enjoy on the ski trip. Ryan and Ben fighting over a ski pole reminds me of the scene from "The Empire Strikes Back" where Yoda fights R2D2 over a lamp.


They're just playin'. All of my pictures are up now. Sadly, no one else's are in my possession yet, so that's all you got. Some posts with commentary are coming.

Comin' Back

Wes and Ryan - Pilot and co-pilot for our second leg of the trip home. Passing through the great angus fields of Nebraska right now. Pictures were updated last night, but keep your eyes open for another update with Ben's great adventure.

Day Two

While Ryan is telling us bedtime stories, let me inform you that the pictures have been updated. Day two is at A-Basin, just up the road from Keystone on the Loveland Pass. We tried to chase the cold weather into the higher altitude for decent skiiing. It worked. FYI, that overturned semi was an accident which happene in the pass while we were skiing. A couple of people actually heard it.

Use the same link as yesterday, it has been appended to. Tired...good night.

Keystone Pics Day 1

Well I didn't finish the post about the church move NOR the one about my new job. But traditionally, I can't let a single day go by without posting ski pictures. We're in Keystone Colorado with a crew (not pictured is Jeffrey, Nan and Lyall). You can find an ever growing collection of pics at the Picasa album for day 1. Enjoy until some explanation can be added.

If you don't see the link, here it is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin71481/KeystoneColorado2010#

Snake Attack!!!

Still too tired/busy to post about the actual big things going on in life right now. It's nap time right now, but I think it's getting trumped by some chores in a minute. In any case, here's this week's excitement at school. Feeding time for one of the student's python. It is a cute live rat, so consider yourself warned. The editing was done by someone much better at it than I. The high pitched voices in the last half are due to the speeding up of the video. He's a slow eater.

Great Blog

It's late. I'm tired. There's plenty to blog about. The new church building. The snake feeding at school today. Job changes. Instead, lets brag about a great person with a great message and not think about that fact that I'm just too tired to post. Good Night.