Making Progress

I would definitely call this making progress – more or less keeping up on both NaBloPoMo and the black-and-white photo challenge! I’ll take what I can get, thank you.

BW#3 - Spiral

Pass The Catch-Up, part 2 (Best-Laid Plans)

Hey, still with me? Cool. Now where was I?

So, I was laid off back in 2012, and have all this time on my hands. What to do, what to do…

My plan before shit went down was to work on my photography education part-time, and then after that find a job as a photographer someplace that I could work on the side while I continue doing the software engineering thing during the week. OK, so that didn’t quite go as planned.

The lay-off did give me the opportunity to go to photo school full-time, which I did. What an experience that was! The staff is all great there, and the 7 of us in the full-time program starting that January learned quite a bit and had a lot of fun in the process. I made some awesome friends there, and still keep in contact with a certain few of them. Some of our group has gone on to become outstanding photographers and artists.

As for me, I do have my own on-the-side photography biz, but no business or marketing savvy whatsoever (ugh!) And I learned that photography is not a bill-paying profession by any stretch.
So while I still struggle to make ends meet (and more often than not, the ends aren’t even in the same county) at least I now have a cool hobby-job on the side that will sometimes earn a little mad money for things.

Speaking of photography, here is the second installment of the black-and-white challenge. Meet Emma, the adorable (and often hellacious) kitty who resides with my niece Teri and her husband.

BW #2 - Meow

Tagged

BW #1

We interrupt our regularly-scheduled blog post to bring you – The Black and White Challenge!

I was tagged the other day by my friend Carol (of Carol's Little World fame) to post five black-and-white images in five days. Today is the first day of my participation in said challenge, and so now here we go. I will intersperse these with my regular posts, if only to add some visual appeal to what is already awesomeness.

As part of this, I was supposedly going to tag a person each day to join in the challenge, but I am going to pass on that part. No reason, just going to skip that.

Call me a non-conformist.

Pass The Catch-Up, part 1 (“Dammit, I Really Needed That Money!”)

Day 2, biotches! Technically it’s day 3, but I’m hoping to post again tonight, so close enough and get over it!

I alluded to a number of changes that have taken place over the past couple of years, so I thought I would start by getting you up-to-speed as to what’s been going on. I could do this as a single, longer post, but instead I will give you a bit at a time. That way you don’t go into information overload, and I get to stretch things out a bit,and get more for my NaBloPoMo dollar.

In January, 2012 I was laid-off from my 18-year gig at Stratus Technologies. Apparently, my job function as a System Certification Engineer could be performed more cost-effectively if outsourced to another company, and all that blah, blah, blah. Honesty, I wasn’t too offended at the time because for one thing, I was definitely feeling burnt-out and wanted a change. For another, I had wanted to begin pursuing photography as more than just a hobby, and had enrolled as a part-time student at the Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts. As it turns out, the lay-off gave me the opportunity to attend full-time and would be able to complete my studies in only nine months, instead of eighteen. More on that in a later post.

While I felt I left Stratus on good terms, I have to admit that even now I harbor a small amount of resentment over the lay-off, because dammit – I needed that money, and still do! Yeah I know it can’t all be about the money, but try telling that to the mortgage company, the utility companies, and the lenders of your 20-year old student loans. And – as I have learned over the past two-and-a-half-years – the longer you are out of the computer industry, the harder it is to get back in because it is a constantly-changing, continually-moving target. Sure I wanted out of the industry, but I wanted a lot more say of when that took place, and a lot more control over the pacing of the transition.

But everything happens for a reason…

And Here We Go Again

Well gang – another November, another NaBloPoMo. After the 1-day (cough) blogfest from 2012, I took last year off.

The past couple of years saw huge changes, so there will be plenty to write about over the coming days, but not tonight. I just got back from stuffing myself full of pasta at Pizzaland in Oneonta, NY (yes, New York – that is one of the changes). I’m full to bursting, and very tired at the moment, so tonight’s introductory post will be quite brief.

Happy November 1, Happy NaBloPoMo, and happy blogging!

Another Year, Another Post

It’s November. NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). Based on past history, I’m better off not making any grandiose promises about how I will somehow, miraculously, post to my blog everyday for the entire month of November. Especially considering that the last posting I made here was, oh let’s see, mid-November of last year!

…*sigh*…

Due to a number of factors – not the least of which is my typically using Facebook as a “micro-blog” to dump the rant-of-the-moment, having another blog that I am also trying to keep up on (yes I’ve been two-timing on you Blogger, get the hell over it!), and general laziness – I am not going to commit to a daily posting.

I will, however, strive to at least post more often than once a year.

The Good, The Bad, and The PXE

What a weekend! So much going on, and I’m exhausted. I’ll give you a synopsis: 

The Good. Saturday morning, Patti and I went to the open house at Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts, in Waltham, MA. This was the school I was accepted into a couple of years ago, but issues with financial prevented my from attending. After a 9-month stint with the Art Institutes online division, I realized that online classes were not going to work well for me – I learn best in a hands-on, real classroom environment. So I re-applied to CDIA – here’s hoping that all works out this time!

Also good: choir and chorale rehearsals today. I love working with our “small but mighty” church choir, and singing with the Montachusett Chorale is so much fun! 

The Bad. Working on the weekend. I have never hidden the fact that I hate working in the computer industry with all the red-hot intensity of a thousand suns, but there is something about having to go in during the weekend in order to satisfy the ever-present product schedules (only made worse by my need to be able to focus on just one task at a time). But I will leave that well-enough alone for now and play nice, since I still need to be able to pay the overabundance of bills.

Also bad: coming down with a nasty, achy, head-coldy kinda thing that is just making me feel generally crappy (and knowing that taking a much-needed sick day is probably not a good idea anytime in the next week or so). 

The PXE. My first question was, “what the heck is PXE?” Turns out, that it stands for “Preboot Execution Environment” – it’s basically a way for a system to boot with the assistance of another system over a network connection. It’s also something I needed to putz around with over the weekend for some tests I needed to run. I also discovered that PXE could also stand for “Pretty eXasperating Experience”.

Also PXE: A little something called gPXE, which the the GNU flavor of PXE (basically the freeware version of PXE, and the version I was actually using).

So, how was your weekend?

A Blogging Haiku

Writing blogs is fun,
but not so drawing a blank.
Too many brain-farts.

Ramblings Of The Uninspired

Here I sit, in bed with the laptop awaiting my next keystrokes so that I might inflict my next blog entry. Though I am feeling somewhat uninspired at the moment. I do have a list of possible blog topics, but none of them are doing much for me this evening.

And now Her Royal Meowjesty hops up onto the bed as well, saunters up next to me purring loudly, and then proceeds to climb up onto my belly and starts kneading (apparently soft and round equates to “pincushion” in her mind). Thankfully my sweatshirt is taking the brunt of it – this cat is in serious need of a manicure. That is a task best left for the professionals (or at least the masochists);

I’ve once tried trimming the claws of our previous cat, Skooter, some number of years ago … once. She then made it abundantly clear to me that she likes her claws just the way they are, thank you very much. To this day, in the right light, you can still see the vestiges of the scar on my arm that resulted from that error in judgment on my part.

Anyhow, where was I? Oh right – I was trying to think of something to blog about tonight.

Perhaps something will come to me tomorrow.

Announcement: Montachusett Chorale Annual Holiday Benefit Concert

Patti and I are members of the Montachusett Chorale, an area choral group who raises funds for various local charitable organizations.

This year’s holiday concert will benefit the Montachusett Interfaith Hospitality Network, whose aim is to provide transitional housing and support for homeless families with children. It will be held on Sunday, December 4, at 2pm in the Tata Auditorium of Leominster City Hall, 25 West Street, Leominster, MA. Advance tickets are $12, and $15 at the door (under 18 is free).

If you happen to be in the North-Central Massachusetts area at that time, c’mon over and enjoy an afternoon of great music and help a worthy cause!

Just Checking In

Had a long day today, culminating in having to go into work (ugh). Plus I have to be up early tomorrow morning.

I’m calling it a night, but not without posting – ha!

I Only Read It For the Articles

I got the Winter 2012 B&H Catalog in the mail a few days ago, and am I a happy camper! For those who may not know B&H is a suppler of photographic, video and pro audio supplies.

So many camera items, lenses, and lighting equipment! Complete drool-fest.

It’s just like Playboy… expect for the smutty pictures.

And the staples.

Sleep

For tonight’s post I thought I would share a video with you. This is of the composer Eric Whitacre’s Virtural Choir 2.0 performing his piece entitled “Sleep”.  It is breathtakingly beautiful.

An Introduction of Sorts

Here we are, in the second day of NaBloPoMo. You might notice that things look a bit different around here. I started toying around with some of the new templates on Blogger to see if a change of scenery might jumpstart my creativity. I’m a visual person, and am driven quite a bit by what things I see and how I see them. As a result this page may morph a time or two again in the near future – or then again it may not.

But enough rambling for now; there will be plenty of that going forward anyway, I assure you.

I am going to take a cue from my friend Carol and, while we’re still early in the month, give you a brief intro (you never know what poor soul will stumble across this and say “dear God – what have I done?”). Anyhow, if you couldn’t figure it out from my info over to the right, my name is Mike Carvin (and if you did figure that out already, you get a gold star – just not from me). I grew up in the teeming metropolis of Laurens, New York but am now living in Fitchburg, Massachusetts (by way of Potsdam NY, Framingham MA, and Marlborough MA) – each is probably fodder for another day. I live there with my wife Patti our two youngest kids: Bethanie, who will be 17 in January, and Thomas, who turned 15 back in September. Our oldest son, MJ (Michael James) is 19 and a PFC in the Army National Guard and presently stationed at Fort Eustis, VA where he is attending AIT (Advanced Individual Training) in aviation electronics. Oh, and we also have a 6 year old cat named Angel (rather, she deems us her purr-sonal assistants).

I am a system certification engineer (a type of QA engineer) at a not-to-be-named computer company. While I must strive almost daily to not say anything negative about the job, I can say that I’m happy to have a job, and one that (nearly) pays the bills at that. That said, I look forward to the day when I can leave there (preferably on good terms) and start out on my new career as a photographer. More stories for another time I see.

In my spare time (wait – spare time? what’s that?) I, with Patti, are members of the Montachusett Chorale, and am involved with our church choir. I will also occasionally dabble in yarn crafts – crochet and knitting to be specific – which is where the “CraftyGuy” moniker comes from. I had until fairly recently also been involved in barbershop singing, which I have had to back-burner in order to make time for school; once I have a degree or certificate in Photography (whichever), I hope to be able to again make time for that hobby. Again, more blog fodder to avail myself of.

A pretty good start, as far as introductions go, I suppose. I can’t very well dump out everything in one sitting, now can I?

Here We Go Again

November 1. NaBloPoMo starts again. And yes, Virginia, I’m giving it another go. I know the last two (or three) attempts have been less than stellar, but what can I say – I’m tenacious (or stubborn).

Here I sit with the family watching “Dancing With The Stars” (get over it). Well, we’re all in the living room anyhow; Bethanie is on the kids’ computer, surfing for photos of Andrew Lee Potts or Tristan McManus one moment, chatting on Facebook the next.

Do I actually have something to write about tonight? No, not really, but why should that stop me?

Random Thought on Education

For decades, we’ve been throwing more and more money into education in the hopes that all its problems would be solved, and it hasn’t worked yet (I leave the definition of insanity as an exercise to the reader).

That said, common sense would naturally dictate that the answer is not be to decrease education spending either.

So, if education cannot be fixed by spending more money on it, nor by spending less on it – could it be that the problem isn’t money?

Hmmm…

Here’s a thought – how about the education system be allowed to focus more on – get this – education and how to think for oneself (oh, the horror!), and less on social engineering, indoctrination, and shoving politically-correct bullshit down the throats of our nation’s youth?

Here’s an even better idea – how about the educators themselves working on getting back their passion for teaching and imparting knowledge? Whatever happened to that? That passion can be contagious, and those whom we have entrusted to the educators will perhaps pick up on that passion and develop some for themselves in whatever area piques their interest. The lack of this is really one (of many I’m sure) of the main things that has caused our education system to languish.

Today’s Headline

Check this story out - Celebs go offline for a day for charity

I see couple of good things coming out of this:

1. Celebrities are doing a good thing by raising awareness (and possibly some money) on World Aids Day by going offline for a day.

2. Without all that celeb tweeting going on, the collective IQ of cyberspace will go up about 80 points.

And that’s the news…

Whiteboard Wisdom

Like I alluded to before, this year’s NaBloPoMo turned into an epic failure, but only from a daily posting standpoint. I’m glad that I have somewhat gotten my rear back in gear and blogging at least occasionally. Perhaps more so this week since it is a vacation week away from work (oh yeah!)

Speaking of work, I thought I would share some “whiteboard wisdom”. Nothing too profound (not even close), but all it entails is just things I post on my office whiteboard as a form of stress relief, catharsis, what have you, whenever I get frustrated at work (which happens a lot). Mostly just brief opinions on how I think things should work (though realistically I know they won’t), and things I want to say at work, but know better.

Here’s a small sampling of what’s been up on my whiteboard lately:

“This is a multitasking-free zone”

“Micro-management? Just say NO!”

“Do you want it ‘right’ or ‘right now’?”

Chow down on that – maybe some more pre-holiday appetizers later.

“Why I’m Depressed”

As you could have guessed, NaBloPoMo is pretty much a bust for me again this year, but that’s okay. I’m (sort of) back into the blogging mode (even if I’m not doing it obsessively.

I got the following in email today with the subject line “Why I’m Depressed” from a co-worker. This is one of those marvelously politically-incorrect things that I enjoy. I did get a good chuckle of out it, and thought I’d share it. My usual disclaimer applies (which is: if you are one of those hyper-sensitive types with the political-correctness fetish, piss off!)

Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel, "Pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the Promised Land."

Nearly 75 years ago, (when Welfare was introduced) Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a Camel, this is the Promised Land."

Today, Obama has stolen your shovel, taxed your asses, raised the price of Camels and mortgaged the Promised Land! I was so depressed last night thinking about Health Care Plans, the economy, the wars, lost jobs, savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., called a Suicide Hotline. I had to press 1 for English. I was then connected to a call center in Pakistan . I told them I was suicidal. They got excited and asked if I could drive a truck.

Om Nom Nom

We’re going to a potluck tomorrow evening, so we got ourselves a whole bunch of cooking going on. MJ made banana bread earlier today, and I just got done making a pumpkin marble cheesecake. Patti will be making a chicken and rice casserole tomorrow. Lots of noms to be had.

Speaking of noms, the kids showed me this video sometime ago – way too cute not to share.