So this blog will be moving locations soon. The address will stay the same but it will no longer be hosted on my dedicated server. I am moving all ofmy websites into the cloud. It is much cheaper. This $280 a month for my webserver is just way too much. Given that it will take a month to get my first paycheck I am in cost cutting bill avoidance mode.

Moving RideSearch is going to be the hardest. I would just quit it completely but I do make $100 every couple of months from it. I actually surpassed a milestone this week with more than 15,000 members. These past couple of weeks has seen a doubling of traffic with 50 people signing up a day. I even kicked out the spammers. Are gas prices rising again?

So as far as this site goes I may keep my old posts on blogger and add new posts on Ning. I will add forums and news discussions and an event calendar and my videos. It will have integration with facebook and twitter too. The great thing about being in the cloud is that I won't have to manage it to get new services. The changeover should take place in a week. More tests...

So I went to the doctor yesterday. It was initially a followup on my carpal tunnel. It has alleviated and I am about at 90% functionality. He said I don't need surgery. I am glad for that. I think the biggest thing I did was to make my work area completely ergonomic. I got a sideways mouse which lowers wrist movement, a Microsoft ergo keyboard which puts less pressure on the hands, a baby railing on the desk edge which was hitting the nerve, and armrest pads which prevented my elbow from pinching the nerve.

I do like to go all out when a problem raises it's head. In this case the doctor said my ergonomic workplace is what made it all better. While I was there the doctor noticed I have the beginning of bronchitis. I thought it was an ear infection I picked up from Brennon. He had a fever over the weekend and I watched him on Monday on my day off.

So the doctor likes to go all out when he encounters a problem. He gave mr a steroid shot in bum, a prescription for antibiotics and anti-cough medicine and mucinex. This is really going to attack the problem. I am glad cause I can't afford to get sick since I have no days left. Once I jump to the IRS I will start accruing days again. That will be nice. I am feeling better on these meds. Brennon is doing better as well. I wish all medicines were cures. More tests...

So in the midst of bad news comes good news. Today I gave my two weeks notice to Lockheed Martin. I have accepted an offer to work at the Department of the Treasury. It is official. It took me five years of hard work building systems to get me in. Congratulations can be heard from my fellow coworkers. I will be a GS-13 - equivalent to a major with 10 years in the military.

I got a little raise too. I will now have better benefits and a better outlook on my career. I go from 15 days off to 26 days off and after 3 years I will have 33 days off. This is great for my family. So to all of you recruiters take me out of your database. I am starting a 30 year retirement calendar. Time to serve my nation. I think I have to take an oath of office when I start. I am proud to do it. Thanks to God for keeping me vigilant in my career. All glory goes to Him.

So how is my mother? Well, not too good. She has endometrial cancer. The doctor got some results today and said that it was malignant and was high up which is not like normal endometrial cancer. He said he couldn't tell whether it had spread to the cervix because it was too close to it. He also said it could be in the lymph nodes. So I think we are looking at a stage II or stage III cancer. The doctor couldn't make that determination. That determination would have to be made by a specialist.

In my undoctored opinion right now there is a high probability of a hysterectomy and lymph node sampling with radiation and hormone therapy involved. However, if it has spread to other parts then doing surgery might be futile and radiation/hormone therapy would probably take place more aggressively. That is just what I have picked up on the internet.

When you go to Wikipedia there is a five year survival rate of around 70% for stage 2 and 50% for stage 3. I am glad they make it five years so you think it is going to be ok. The one thing I know is that my mom is tough. I mean she has had diabetes and lupus for a while and she has had many different surgeries over her life. She is a tough lady. Heck, once the cancer is gone she may last another 20 years. Next week is her specialist appointment. Pray that goes well.

So here I am at the hospital waiting room. As you may know my mom has had some bleeding. So this morning I took her to the doctor. He diagnosed it as uterine cancer. That sucks. I am always the optimist. My sister said standard procedure is to do a hysterectomy if it is localized. Right now we are doing a sonogram and a cat scan. Pray that it is localized.

So I have started on learning Actionscript 3 and Flash CS5. This will enable me to make iPhone and Android apps using the same code. That should be nice. I am thinking about evolving the RideSearch web app into an actual iphone/android app but I am not sure if it is worth it. Also, my one click maintence diet app is also in the works. I wonder what I should do first. I probably won't gain any money from it, but I will have experience.

Speaking of Apps, Jotnot Pro still tops my list of most useful iPhone Apps. It is just like having a scanner around when I need it. It turns any picture into an Adobe PDF that looks like it was scanned in. Then instead of faxing it to someone I just email it. I get a record of it and don't have to use a fax machine. The hard thing is you have to hold it steady and get the camera aligned. What if I invented a metal phone holder that was a foot high that allows the user to put their phone on it and take flat square pictures. That is a good idea, although it would have to go hand in hand with the app. I think the developer of that app should create it. I'd buy it.

Netflix is the next useful app I use. At lunch I will watch a show or something. Now they have added the ability to plug your phone into a TV and stream movies to a TV from your phone. That is pretty cool. Netflix has added more movies and TV shows. I think the era of DVD collections is coming to a close. It is nice to have DVDs but they can be scratched and then you lose all that information. Anyways, I hear the Windows phone is coming out next week. It is really built for people who check facebook and twitter alot. It is like a social network phone. Let's see if it lasts.

This weekend we hung around the house. Holly had Friday off and took Brennon to the doctor for his yearly appointment. His height and weight are at around 50% so he is down to normal. He is 24 pounds and 30 inches long. His head size is at 84% though. I told Holly he must get his big head from her side, as I have a small head. I've always had to put baseball caps on its tightest settings. The doctor was a little concerned that Brennon has a limited vocabulary. He said Brennon shouldn't be watching any TV and also that it might be normal since he is basically in a double language family with his babysitter speaking spanish during the day. You never know, he may know alot of words, we just wouldn't understand them.

Saturday watched the Texas Tech game. It was sad that we have a coach that makes bad decisions. It makes you think what is better - a coach that makes bad decisions off the field or a coach that makes bad decisions on the feild. I think the best would be a coach that doesn't make any bad decisions.

Sunday we went to Sunday School and I stopped by mom's place. Apparently her bleeding has started up again. The nurse told me to setup an appointment with an obgyn. The place doesn't wash blood stained clothes either so we have to do it. Ack. Oh well. I have been father of year changing Brennon. I think I can handle most gross things in life except for one, that will be nameless. Now Holly. She rocks. She can handle everything. I think if she wasn't a teacher she would be a nurse. Anyways, life continues on.

So this story starts like any other story but ends with intrigue, terror and police. Yesterday after work I went to Bible study at my church. I was filming it so I had to be there early. So I get there and proceed to eat in the cafeteria. During which time I see some teenagers running around. I think to myself,"who in their right mind runs in a church." Little did I know later on it would be me. During class I put my phone on vibrate and proceeded to ignore it. Afterwords around 8:10 I get a call from Holly," Brian, where are you? Come home quick. There are people at the front door banging and there was someone in the backyard." I told her to call the police. I look at the cameras on my phone and can see these tall lanky white boys with hoodies and baseball caps banging on the front door and pacing back and forth like they are really mad.

It was at that point when I became one of the runners. I ran out the door and into my car. I could not believe that people were harassing my wife. I had to get home, and quick. I discovered on the tollway that mom's van can go when it needs to. When I arrived at the house the three guys were getting in their car and the police were already there. So I get out my car yelling - "how dare you harass my wife." They proceed to get in their car and drive away. I am, and always will be, willing to die for my wife. The cop then acts like I am the bad guy. "Calm down sir. Everything was fine till you show up and act all crazy. You wouldn't be yelling if we weren't here. Your praked in the middle of the street. Park your car near the curb and calm down or I'll take you in." So I act like, "yes sir." and all, knowing full well that my purpose was to scare the guys and I did not care if the police were there or not.

The police then said "I gave them a warning. I told them if they come back again they will be arrested. I told them that Texas is a concealed handgun state and they should never trespass on someone's property. Apparently these guys said that their cell phone was stolen and the police in wise county wouldn't do anything so they figured they would take the law into their own hands." I then told the police I was mad because there I am watching these guys on camera, which is recording everything, and cannot do anything to protect my wife. They said, "Ok. Well, they probably won't come back" and then left.

Here is what happened. Holly had put Brennon to sleep around 7PM and had taken a nap only to be awoken by banging on the door at 7:45. Now she does not answer the door when I am not home, and rightly so. So she let them bang. Then around 7:50 two guys open the back fence and proceed to go into the patio. I have this on film. If you've ever seen the move "Panic Room" it was just like that. There was a guy at the front pacing and two guys in the back. The first one entered to check things out then the second one actually opened the storm door. The door is locked, but they could see in because the light was on. He spoke through the window - come to the front door we need to talk.

Now Holly is freaked out but she actually goes to the front door and cracks it open and tells them to go away. They then give this story - "So we are out in Wise County at a bar and my wife's purse is stolen. It has a cellphone with GPS in it. The GPS tracked it to this house. We know because the GPS says it is here. We are from Seattle and are in town for a Metlife conference. All we want is our stuff back so we can get back to Seattle" Holly says "It is not here go away." "We have it on GPS. Do you have any kids that could have taken it?" Holly then shuts the door and says "wait for my husband." So they actually wait.

Now I don't know if I believe their story. Apparently the police did because they let them go. They didn't even asked me if I wanted to press charges. I clearly had evidence of them trespassing. I think that was a mess up on the police's part. In the end I calmed down but I was ready to open up a can on these guys. My adrenaline was pumping and thinking about it still makes me mad. I am not a violent man. I am not even a man with any inclinations towards bad things. But I tell you. No one better mess with my family. Time to put up a security system that has some teeth. Anyways, in the end all is right with the world, for us anyways. Somewhere out there is a cellphone that is hacked. I hope others don't point to our house. Otherwise we may have problems. All of this makes me stop and think how important my wife is to me. Evil may be out there. But love is in here. Peace to all.

Well, things are looking good. I really don't have that many worries in life. I suppose because events are moving along as I have forseen them. I will update in the next couple of weeks as to what I am talking about. My last purchase that Motivium will make will be for an Apple development license. I am learning Adobe Products in my spare time. Like Adobe Premiere for video editing and Adobe Flash for iPhone and Android development. There is just not enough time to learn it all, but it is fun having these skills.

I am thinking about going to see that Facebook movie. I hope I don't get bitter. Of course my social network is still taking off. In the last 24 hours I have had 60 members sign up. I have just 250 people to go to where I would have 15,000 members. Wow, imagine if I would have kept my original $5 a month subscription idea going. That is $75,000 a month. Oh well. I do it for free because it is like a charity. I do make some money on ads but the server fees always offset that.

I think though about running the web server from home again. I remember when I tried it years ago how the site would go down whenever there was a windows update or a power outage. This time I would probably get an actual webserver and run windows server 2008 and get a better UPS to keep the site going even when the power goes out. That is an idea. But I do know that when you run a webserver from home sure you save money, but you definitely don't save time. More tests...

FYI: I have posted pictures of Brennon's first birthday party and a little video in the media section of this site and the pictures I have put on facebook. Phanfare is a good service in that you can upload 40 pics to them and with one click of a button it can publish them to this site and to facebook. Although paying a yearly subscription is a hard thing to do for a service that in other areas you can get for free. However, there is no chance of it being discontinued.

I do recommend backing up pics to at least picasa or flickr. Then you have google docs for your documents. Hard drives do crash every now and then. The only thing that you might lose, which is a big one, is your installed programs. Then if you really wanted to keep that you could take an image of your entire system using a backup utility like norton ghost.

I watched Superman II last night. It is by far the best of the Superman movies. I did notice that the lady who got bit by the snake at the beginning said "ow" and then killed it with laser beams from the eyes. If she had skin of steel a snake biting her would not have hurt her at all. Maybe she was surprised? Eh, I think it is just a plot mistake. I was talking with Holly about how kids nowadays need heroes like Superman. Someone who actually does good for the world. Instead it is basketball and baseball players who can barely type in English on their twitter accounts. They should make collectable trading cards for CEOs and Software Engineers. Hmmm, new idea, CEO Trading Cards. I suppose when the bailout happened their values probably went down. How about a MMORPG called CEO where everyone runs a multi-national company. Eh, everyone would take golden parachutes and win the game. More tests...