(5-31-08)

July 27th:

     It's been a while since I've written anything here, but since a few things have gone on in the last couple months, I decided to do a quick update. First off, 1300 employees that make up the majority of the IT (information technology) department where I worked for over 6 years were outsourced to another company. I've officially been working for the new company for about 2 months so far, and so far, well, I'm mostly just happy that I still have a job. I managed to survive years of layoffs at my last company, so those of us who are left are hoping that this new company will actually have a future for us and not just take over all the equipment and then have people overseas take over in a year or so. We don't really know much at this point though, but in the mean time, it seems like a good company to work for.

This spring marked the first time that I completed a whole season of autocrossing my hatchback in quite a while. I finally just about have the suspension all dialed in so that the car does what I want it to. I pretty much spent more time working on the car than actually driving it for the last few years, which was getting to be a pretty tired routine. Race 3 minutes, work on the car for 8 hours. After considering selling it for a while, I'm now thinking I'll just keep it for at least long enough to do another season or two with the suspension worked out so I can try to really see what it's capable of. I'd like to be able to just drive the thing instead of having to work on it and spend money on it all the time!

Around the middle of June my parents got a deal on a beachfront condo rental in Kure Beach, North Carolina so I flew out there to spend the week with them relaxing on the beach. I got a horrible sunburn by the 4th day or so, which kind of spoiled the outdoor activities after that, but I could still swim in the ocean once the sun was past the horizon, or just relax in the condo watching racing on the Speed channel or interesting stuff on Discovery. I don't watch TV at home, so it was nice relaxation time, which is the whole point of a vacation anyway. Look for the pictures to be posted some time in August in my photo area.

So in another couple of weeks I'll be heading out to San Diego with a few friends again for the second annual San Diego vacation getaway trip. I'm not quite feeling like I need a vacation again so soon, but it's not like I'm complaining either. I had a great time last time, so I'm hoping for it to be every bit as good this time too. I have no idea what we're doing, and I seriously doubt anyone else going has made any plans either but like last year, I'm sure we'll still find stuff to do and have a lot of fun. It's hard not to have fun in San Diego! In closing, any of you that have not visited the Homestar Runner web site should do so. It's highly amusing, although bandwidth intensive too. Hopefully you have a cablemodem or else it will be very slow and not quite as enjoyable experience for you.