“The only correct actions are those that demand no explanation and no apology.”
–Red Auerbach
Since I’m currently traveling and people have asked for this in the past, I decided to do a “what’s in my bag?” post. This is what I brought on this trip (and most other recent trips).
What's in Nic's Bag?
Epic Laptop Backpack
Toshiba laptop and charger
DoubleSight USB monitor
1st generation iPad with Booq case
2 bottles water
Ziploc bags
Aleve-D Cold and Sinus caplets
Advil tablets
Caffeine tablets
Chewing gum
Breath mints
Toothpicks
Wireless USB mouse
Wired USB mouse
Keys
2 pens
Pencil
Eraser
Chapstick
USB hub
120v to USB charger
Wired headset for phone
Apple USB cable
3.5 mm male to male audio cable
Apple earbuds
Eyeglass micro-cloth
Airline audio adapter
MicroUSB to USB cable
Cat-5 Ethernet cable
HDMI cable
Zippered Leather portfolio containing:
-Business cards
-Notepad
-Netflix DVD
-Calculator
-Travel rewards cards
I think I need to cut some stuff out of it.
November 30th, 2011
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“The key to someone’s heart is never lost: It’s just that the locks were changed ’cause you’re some sort of psycho.”
–Jean Sorensen
So it’s been just over two months since I’ve had the Jeep. All through that time, it has been amazing. For those that don’t know yet its name is The Bad Mango, or just the Mango for short. In classic Jeep fashion it seems unstoppable, though I’ve only been able to take it off-road once. There are occasions when I miss the Diesel, but they are rare and I get past it. There have been two occasions when I just missed the fact that my vehicle didn’t have a large bed on it for cargo. One of those times, we fixed it by making two trips. The other has yet to be remedied. I’ve got some tricks I think I’ll use, but it’s not been a big deal yet.
I’m also starting to do some work to The Mango. The first thing I did to it was install a new front bumper. It’s an XRC Stinger from Smittybilt. So far, as expected, it looks pretty bad-ass. I’m excited. I’m still deciding which winch needs to be paired with it, but that should be the next purchase.
Speaking of that time I was able to take The Mango off-road, that was this weekend. On a near-whim, Page, Caitlin and I decided to drop everything for the weekend and go meet my dad and brother at the cabin in the North Woods of Wisconsin. It was a 5+ hour drive after work on Friday and when we got there, the power had gone out from a storm. We sat around by flashlight for a while, then went to bed. Saturday is when we did normal cabin camping stuff like hang out at the lake and take the Jeep off-road through the woods. Overall, it was a tremendously exciting time. I realized a few things while I was up there staring at the lake and fire, and maybe it will fix some things around here. Sitting in an environment like this really clears the mind.
In other news, I’m working on starting some new hobbies. So far the results are cool and it is good at relaxing me, so I’ll post more details the next time I get a chance.
July 5th, 2011
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“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
–Stephen Leacock
As always, a lot has changed since I last posted. That is probably more a factor of the long intermission time and not due to things rapidly changing all the time.
Regardless of the reasons, the big news right now is that I’m selling my truck. Readers from a past life know that I currently drive a 4×4 2006 F-250 Super Duty with the 6.0L PowerStroke Turbo Diesel. It is a massive and iconic vehicle. There was a lot of opposition when I first announced this vehicle would no longer be mine. I’m positive that I’ll miss this truck. At nearly 3 years, I’ve had this one longer than any of my previous ones. In that time, I did quite a few customizations to it. The diesel engine is an amazing piece of technology that allows for unbelievable amounts of additional power. I modified mine so that it output an additional 240 horsepower.
So what could I be getting that would pull me away from something like the Diesel? In fact, it’s even pulling me away from my generations of trucks. I’m getting a Jeep Wrangler. Also for the first time in my life , I purchased it brand new. So new, in fact, that the manufacturer had not built it yet. There was initially an 8 week estimated delivery delay, but it arrived 4 weeks ahead of schedule. I was out of town for work last week when it came in so I’m scheduled to pick it up tomorrow at 5pm. I’m quite excited for it. I got the top of the line Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon with nearly every option (all the good ones, that is). I opted to keep the manual transmission which is going to keep me very happy, even with the lower power from the engine.
I’ll be sure to post pictures and first impressions this week once I’ve driven it a little.
May 1st, 2011
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“Never underestimate your ability to overestimate your ability”
-Donna Lewis
So it has been several months since my last post. I’m sorry that my consistency has been lacking. One interesting thing to note since my last post is that I’ve decided to build a house here in Madison. I’ve been looking at a couple lots that are between 5 and 10 acres. I’m excited about this ordeal and what it means for the future. Short term, I’ll have space for me to be me. I’ll have room for my workshop. I’ll have space to ride my four-wheeler. I’ll even have space to have bonfires without driving 9 hours.
In other news, I’ll be traveling to Richmond, Virginia next weekend for work. I’ll be working night shifts at a hospital. I’m not normally a fan of night shifts, but it will be over Halloween so it could be interesting. Something I also realized is that this is the second straight Halloween that I’ve lived in Madison but not been in town to enjoy it. One of these years I will remain in town and join the party downtown.
I should point out that since I announced I purchased an iPad, I have written all of these posts it with the WordPress app. The last update to the application has made it nearly impossible. It claims not to connect yet saves the copy to the server but won’t publish it. I had to write this post 3 times because the first 2 were lost somehow. I really hope they figure out what is wrong with it because this is just irritating.
October 24th, 2010
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“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
–George Bernard Shaw
A few interesting things since we last spoke. I broke down and bought a Dodo case for my iPad and a bag to go with it. I haven’t carried a bag for anything besides school books or the laptop. Since carrying a bag for just a iPad seems a little stupid, I got one a little bigger so it can hold more stuff. As a first bag, it is pretty good. It is still small, but large enough for the iPad and some extra stuff that I’ve decided would be good to always have with me. I’ve only had the bag for two days so we’ll see what gets added and removed.
I’m sort of excited for the Dodo case. It has a 4-6 week lead time so I won’t see it until next month, but it looks pretty cool. I’m a little worried that some of my bare iPad habits won’t transfer well to a cased iPad, but we’ll see. I’m all about making things work better so it could be exciting.
In less exciting news, my monitor stand destroyed itself last night. I was just sitting there and the screen comes crashing down. None too thrilled about that. I spent the next hour or so looking at it to determine what the hell happened. Turns out that there was some bad assembly and design work on Samsung’s part. First off, the piece that broke is a cast aluminum piece so there is no fixing it, can only be replaced. That piece is apparently not readily available online so the whole damn stand is hosed. As for the assembly issues, ITS MISSING SCREWS. There we’re just enough screws to make it look like it was fine, but this failure was a long time coming. I was just going to build a new stand, but I found a pretty decent replacement on eBay for about the same price as the parts I would need to build one. Hopefully it gets here this week so I can have dual monitors back here at home. It just feels wrong with one monitor.
August 7th, 2010
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“Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.”
–Edgar Bergen
When I transitioned over here, I envisioned posting daily. Then I remembered that my life isn’t interesting enough to post daily. Sometimes I like to think it is just because I’m busy, but yesterday I didn’t leave the apartment at all and I still didn’t write. Today was way more involved than yesterday and I’m taking the time to write.
I just watched a movie called The Last Word. It is an interesting premise. It’s about a guy who writes final letters for people getting ready for suicide. Of course there is a love story woven in, but that part is less interesting and fairly predictable. There is an explosion at the end that made me smile.
I commented yesterday that I would cook more if I didn’t have to do the dishes afterward. Turns out that at least two of my friends like the idea of dishes more than cooking. So I guess this means I should start planning to cook more.
August 1st, 2010
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“Virtue is often the result of insufficient temptation.”
–Cheers, George
Today I got the opportunity to play a part in a hiring decision at work. I interviewed a guy for one of our new positions and as a result of that I got to decide if he should be considered for the next phase. I agreed to do it because it sounded like a fun way to get to interact with potential new employees early in the process. What I learned is that it is kind of stressful. It just feels a little weird controlling someone’s career future like that. I guess that is a good reason i didn’t go into management and HR.
July 30th, 2010
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“We build too many walls and not enough bridges.”
–Sir Isaac Newton
I’m writing to you tonight from Gray’s Tied House in Verona. Tonight is one of this week’s euchre nights. It is the just for fun night. Tomorrow is the tournament night. You might ask why I’m writing this post instead of playing. Well, I get the privilege of hosting the event so I get to sit out when there is an odd number of people. I don’t technically host the tournament so I always get to play there. I guess it kind of makes up for tonight.
Things are starting to settle back down at work. We’re pulling in an extra person to help tackle all the lower priority issues so I can focus on the big trouble makers. I just got approval today to try a some new development. It touches a section of the code that I’m not thrilled about messing with, but it could be pretty fun. I actually stayed later to get some of the design work done. I probably would have put a few hours into it but had to come run euchre.
July 28th, 2010
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“I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot.”
–Horace Greeley
I’m making some sweeping changes around here. For starters I am thinking of transitioning my personal journal to this site. You may ask what prompted this. I would say it has something to do with the fact that I don’t update either often enough anymore. This one has a whopping 3 posts and I don’t think I’ve posted on the other one in a few months.
Another reason might have to do with a recent purchase. I snagged an iPad. I had no intention of getting one when it first came out. Later I told myself I would wait for the 2nd generation models. Then it occurred to me that Apple wasn’t going to drop the price of them with the new models and not much would change so I broke down and bought one last Wednesday. Best Buy didn’t have the model I wanted so I was forced to make a trip to the Apple Store. For reasons I won’t get into right now, I can safely say that I will never be going back there unless the world is ending. Even then, it still wouldn’t be certain.
I can’t truly say that I am a fan of Apple products, but I do like my iPod and I’m starting to enjoy my iPad. Many of you will ask why I don’t like Apple then. I’m just not a fan of the company in general (which means I should own stock in it). I don’t like many of their business practices. Again, I don’t want to get into it right now. Maybe some other day.
That’s probably enough for tonight. I’m going to work on making these updates more regular. Someone needs to hold me to that.
Full disclosure: I wrote this whole thing on my iPad with the WordPress app. Actually pretty nifty.
July 27th, 2010
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Looks like I finally got back to working on the web site again. I didn’t realize I had so many broken links. I really despise broken links so I worked hard to correct them tonight. In that process I added and updated a lot of content on the About, Services, and Contact pages. So go forth and learn about me.
Something that is mentioned in the About page is my recent move to Epic in Madison, Wisconsin. I moved up here in March and have been enjoying nearly every minute of it.
May 29th, 2009
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