The Eye of Kris

My wife says it's time for an update on my blog. I know - it's been way too long. I'm a slacker. So, here's what's been going on:

My trip to Boston was uneventful. I had several meetings and met some more people, and definitely got a little better understanding of what's going on up there and who's doing what, but there wasn't anything earth-shattering. I keep looking for something that will get me excited about the opportunities available with this new company, but so far, I haven't found it.

Speaking of jobs, I turned down the job offer that I mentioned before, which required a lot of travel. I spoke to the president of the company and he said they would really love to have me so please contact them if my situation changes and I want to reconsider. It's nice to know I'm considered valuable.

On the 6th, I attended an EAA event promoting the new FAA Sport Pilot rating. I filled out some forms and got my student pilot certificate, so I'm now legally allowed to fly an airplane under the supervision of an instructor. Woo-hoo! I have no idea when I'll actually start training, but I went ahead and got the certificate (which is good for 2 years). I found out later the following week that one of my co-workers just started taking flight lessons.

This past weekend, we went down to Don & Brooke's house on Friday night to deliver and set up some new computers that I had ordered for them. I got them all set up with e-mail and internet access, and we had a great time visiting and hanging out on "the farm". Owen went down to the little river that runs along the lower part of the property and he had a blast throwing rocks and watching the fish. He didn't want to leave. We ate lunch by the water and the weather was just about perfect. We need to go down there more often.

We had taken both cars down there in order to transport the computer equipment, so for the return trip, we put Owen's booster seat in the Miata and he rode home with me with the top down. It was a beautiful drive, and he loved it.

Sunday was mother's day, and being the terrible son that I am I forgot to call my mother. We talked about it on Friday and on Saturday, and even on Sunday morning on the way to church, but somehow, when we got home on Sunday afternoon, it just slipped our minds. I felt terrible when we realized at about 10 PM that we had not called her. We called her last night, though, and she was very forgiving.

This week, I'm hoping to wrap up development on my first project as the supervisor of the java development team. It's gone pretty well considering we lost some good resources during the acquisition process.

For a couple of years now, I've been tinkering with Linux here and there. For those who don't know, Linux is an operating system that is an alternative to Windows or the Mac OS, and most versions of it are free (there are a number of variations). The server that hosts this web site (and several others) runs Linux, and I have a small server set up in the house for testing purposes, but I've never really gotten to the point of using it on a desktop computer.

I recently got a really good deal on a very compact laptop, so I thought I'd try running the latest release of Fedora Linux on it, and start getting more familiar with running Linux as a desktop system. I was able to install it last night, and I even got my wireless card working and got connected to my Windows server so that I can access all my files and remotely access my main desktop computer. I was pretty impressed with how much simpler it has become to set up and configure.

The biggest hinderance to running it as my main operating system is the software that is available. There are a couple of Windows programs that I depend on a lot, but new Linux applications are getting better every day, so now that I have a computer to test stuff on, maybe I can find some good replacements or alternatives.

So, anyway, that's what's been happening with me lately. I'm sure I forgot something, but if you need to know everything, then you should call more!