A couple days ago my Chevy Malibu Maxx keyfob stopped working. It was intermittent for a few days prior, so I wasn’t surprised. When I opened it up the problem was quickly apparent: the small metal piece that secures the battery and is its contacts had come loose.

This morning I got my soldering kit out and made the simple repair. Only two of the three tiny points were loose. I had to use a hemostat to hold the piece firmly to the board while I performed my handy-work. Voila! It works. In fact, it’s probably better than new.

It was fun to solder again. The last time I plied my soldering skills was probably nine years ago on old Learjet wiring back in Wichita, Kansas.

Chevrolet Malibu Maxx keyfob

Stove-top soldering station

Keyfob fixed

chevrolet · chevy · keyfob · malibu · maxx · repair · solder

I’ve wanted to work as a programmer since long before I earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Wichita State University. When I was in the Air Force I developed an application in Visual Basic to track the status of the unit’s refueling drogues, for which I was primarily responsible. At Bombardier Learjet I developed an Access database to track overdue receivables, for which I was also responsible, and Excel VBA macros to prettify data regurgitated from SAP. Programming is what I enjoyed, so I made opportunities (i.e. excuses) to do it.

After moving to Maine in 2007 I answered a job listing for a traveling photographer. I thought it would be fun to see New England and pursue another passion of mine, photography. It was a good and bad decision. I’ve enjoyed meeting many new people and traveling in beautiful scenic country. I’ve very much disliked being away from Kirsten and the girls so many nights and Saturdays. My schedules have been light and too few; I’ve never been able to count on a paycheck or have a budget. I’ve been looking for other work off and on for quite a while. Recently I’ve begun aggressively planning and researching starting a freelance web design/development business. Every morning for the past week I’ve woken early, showered, and headed to Starbucks to study and plan. It’s been exhilarating.

Yesterday morning, while at Starbucks with Skye, I got a voicemail from an employment recruiter. It was for a three to six month contract position at Tri-County Mental Health Services in Lewiston, Maine developing Excel Dashboard Reports from disparate data sources. An interview was set for 14:30 in Lewiston.

I was thirty minutes early for the meeting, so I sat in my car and read a web development magazine. I met with Tim and Jason, who asked me about my background. The fact that I’m a pilot came up, as it often does. I talked to them about my experience developing in Access and Excel at Bombardier. After twenty minutes we shook hands and I began the hour-long drive back to Saco.

After less than thirty minutes of driving my phone rang. It was the recruiter telling me they wanted me to start Monday. I’m thrilled! I’ll be given a mini-project that is supposed to take three days to complete. If I don’t have it done in that time they will cancel the project. It’s a bit stressful, but I know I’ll be able to do accomplish the task. I’m going to spend a significant amount of time this weekend honing my VBA skills and reading everything I can about Excel Dashboards.

A new, better, chapter is beginning for me. I plan to do a lot of the planning/startup work for my freelance business while I’m employed at Tri-County Mental Health Services. The experience should also help me to secure future contract work. Right now I’m just thrilled to know we’ll be able to comfortably pay our monthly bills. That’s a HUGE stress relief!

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Five out of five! Excellent cinematography. Great story. Interesting themes sure to spark discussion.

www.perfumemovie.com

attraction · motion picture · movie · perfume · phermone · review · scent · smell · video · woman

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audio · imagine · john lennon · song

I visited four new states on our most recent trip to Florida: New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. That brings the total to 47. Is there any reason to visit Michigan, Wisconsin and West Virginia besides to say I did?

Darker states are where I've spent more time

map · travel · united states

Valleys lay in sunny vapor,
And a radiance mild was shed
From each tree that like a taper
At a fest stood. Then we said,
“Our feast, too, shall soon be spread,
Of good Thanksgiving turkey.”

And already still November
Drapes her snowy table here.
Fetch a log, then; coax the ember;
Fill your hearts with old-time cheer:
Heaven be thanked for one more year,
And our Thanksgiving turkey!

Welcome, brothers–all our party
Gathered in the homestead old!
Shake the snow off, and with hearty
Hand-shakes drive away the cold;
Else your plate you’ll hardly hold
Of good Thanksgiving turkey.
(more…)

harpers · poem · poetry · thanksgiving

Spring Point Ledge Light from SMCC

This morning I drove Kirsten to school. I brought a book to read in the car while I waited for her class to conclude. I parked next to the water and watched the stormy sea lap relentlessly against the Spring Point Ledge Light breakwater. It was perfect.

While I sat there in the car I could not get out of my mind thoughts about a discussion I’ve been having with a friend regarding the Anthropic Principle and multiverses. It was driving me crazy and I could not concentrate. So, I headed to the campus bookstore to purchase some paper and a pencil with which to draft an email response. On my way out of the student center I found a newspaper rack with assorted national and local papers. What I couldn’t find was any way to pay for them. I asked a nice woman at the nearby Financial Services window to whom am I supposed to pay for the newspapers. She said they are all free.

What? Free newspapers? They are provided, she told me, by the school’s Student Senate in the Newspaper Readership Program. I picked up a copy of the The Boston Globe, The New York Times, USA Today and, of course, The Beacon. How cool is that?

When the bottom finally drops out–we’re counting the days–I’ll still be able to read the newspapers or use them as blankets.

Some things in life really are free. I’m just glad some of those are the things I love most, like news and information. Kirsten has promised to pick me up the papers whenever she has a need to be on campus. Thanks, Babe!

free · newspaper · newspaper readership program · smcc

The Rhetoric is Gravatar enabled, which means your gravatar will show up next to your comments. Pretty cool, eh?

If you don’t have a gravatar go to http://en.gravatar.com/ and sign up for free. You’ll upload your avatar for each email address with which you blog, set a rating for each and voila!, you’re done. Gravatar enabled sites will search for your nifty little image and place it neatly next to your very interesting comment.

WordPress.org: Using Gravatars

avatar · blog · comment · gravatar · how-to

Remember when MTV played music videos on their popular cable news channel? Careers were made with MTV and songs weren’t complete until the video played on MTV. Now MTV Music has put their collection of videos online for your viewing pleasure. Check it out. But grab something to eat first, it might be a while.

I like this one. What is your favorite music video of all time? Michael Jackson’s Thriller has to be up there somewhere near the top.

Uh, These Are the Five Most Popular Music Videos on MTV.com?
~Daniel Murphy, The Blog of Lists, Esquire, November 14, 2008

mtv · music · video

Wednesday morning I visited one of my friends, AJ Whitney, in Old Town, Maine. I had a great time talking to him about his photographic workflow and checking out his new gadgets. He’s a great guy with phenomenal talent. If you aren’t familiar with his work you should do yourself a favor and head over to his Flickr photostream.

Before heading to work AJ directed me some of his favorite places to shoot. My favorite of the locations is Leonard’s Mills. It is in the middle of the Penobscot Experimental Forest in Bradley, Maine. I didn’t see another human the entire time I was there. The old saw mill and other buildings are open, so you can look inside, but dark since there’s no artificial lighting. There’s a headpond, dam, footbridge, saw mill, covered bridge, and other buildings.

If you get up to the Bangor area you should definitely check it out!

From the dam holding back the Mill Pond

(more…)

leonards mills · maine · travel