I was going to post something on January 1 but our lives were in a bit of a turmoil.  (We lost a major revenue stream – Don’t worry, we’ll be fine)I was going to wait until my 40th Birthday in March but I was up and about tonight.   SO, I decided to post some random thoughts now.

It’s been a slow start to what I think will be a great year.  This is another reason I chose now to post.  Nothing major has been going on.  I’ve been spending a lot of time with my wife and my son.  Family time has been good.  With that said, I want to wish her a very Happy Valentines day!  (I love you my dear)

It’s hard to believe that this is our 11th Valentines day together.  WOO HOO.   I think most people would not have thought I could or would have been married for this long.   Well you nay sayers, I have to say…  We’re in it for the long haul.  :)  I know a lot of you can’t make sense of our relationship and how we function, just know that there is much love and we are there for our child.  That’s what’s most important ya?

I am still a non-smoking & non-drinking pervert. Angel and I have been attending some group parties to see how they are done here in L.A.  We’re still on the fence about when we’re gonna do our own.  But, we’ve found a good group in the Valley and have been having a ball. (literally)

We’re starting to look for a new place.  We’re planning on staying in the Santa Monica area.  Looking closer to the beach.  However, I have to admit, Venice still calls to me .

We’ve been playing a lot of WoW lately.    Just am not too impressed with other MMO’s that are being released.  I’ve been playing around with my multibox teams etc.  It’s been fun.   Angel and I both have been on a mount kick.  We’re shooting for that 100 mount mount!  :)   Oh, to you idiots that speculate about my life from watching my multibox videos…  get a fucking life…  you don’t know even a tenth of the story, and you don’t need to!

I AM working on some new websites and possibly some new video work.  I may post about them here.   phht

I am planning to be prosperous this year,  I hope all of yours are as well.

In that time, I have never WANTED to quit.  I have had times that I needed to quit. (incarceration, hospital time, etc)  I had one time that I “tried” to quit for a living arrangement I was in.  (that didn’t work out because my room mates hated my mood swings so bad they actually bought me a pack of smokes and asked me to start again)

This is the first time I have made a conscious decision to quit.  On the evening of Nov 1, 2009  I was walking up to the local convenience store from my home.  I lit up a cigarette and said to myself, “This tastes like shit” and put it out.  That was my last cigarette.  I decided that I just didn’t want to smoke anymore.  That was that.

It’s been a month.  No patch, no pills, no nicotine gum.  Surprisingly, no major mood swings.

I get a lot of people going CONGRATS! etc etc.   For me, that’s not the point.   I did not do it for my health or for any “guilt” reasons.   I just decided that I didn’t like doing it anymore.  If I decide that I miss it enough, I may just start again.  But, they do taste bad and I hate the aftereffects.  So, for now, I am a non-smoker.

The other reason is purely superstitious.  Any time I have had a driver’s license in the past, shortly thereafter, I’d get in some sort of legal trouble.  So, I had been afraid to get one LOL.

Why after all these years did I decide to get one?   Well, simple really, Draylan (my son).   There have been times that I’ve needed to drive and usually during those times, Draylan is with me.   I never want there to be a situation where I am doing something illegitimate and Draylan would have to suffer or be confused about what is happening.

I think it’s time as well.  It’s been very interesting to me that I’ve gone this long without one. LOL

I went to the DMV today and was amazed at how easy it was to “renew” my license.   I only had to take an 18 question test and that was it.   If you get more than 3 wrong answers, you fail the test.  I took the test and was worried about 3 questions that I was unsure about.  Ironically, I got all of those 3 right.  I got ONE that I thought was right, wrong.  LOL

So, I am legal again.   Watch out for me on the roads,  I’ll smash you with Angel’s suburban. 

When Angel was pregnant with Draylan, we spent several hours a week discussing how we would deal with various situations that might arise with our son.  A lot of it was discussion on how we would deal with various potential situations as they arise.  Since we could not predict for EVERY possible situation, we spent a lot of time laying out guidelines on how we would deal with situations as they arise.

We know that our views and lifestyle are not the norm.  But do know, that we do love and cherish our son dearly.  I KNOW that we are very good parents.  My argument to most people is simple.  Do not question US as to our viability as parents.  Take a moment and talk to my son, his words, actions, mannerisms, and personality will speak volumes as to how we are as parents.

One of the choices we made before Draylan was born, was how we would deal with Religion and the belief in God.  Both Angel and I believe in the overall good in people but do not ascribe to a “Higher Power” or a particular belief in “God”.  Instead, we are trying to instill in our son good judgment and general decency without having to resort to “God” this or that.  I believe we’re doing a pretty good job of this.

What prompted this blog post?  Tonight, Angel and I went to our local Cub Scout group meeting to see the viability of Draylan joining.  We met some very nice people and felt comfortable with the general vibe of those that ran the group.  We were very forthcoming and honest with the people about how our views were, they were very gracious and fairly understanding.  It seems they had been questioned in the past about various beliefs.   However, I do not think they were prepared for the idea of raising a child with a philosophy instead of a belief in a “Higher Power”.

It saddens me that it is very difficult to find a well organized group for children that truly separates God from the equation.

I will have to do more research.  There has to be something out there.  More on this later

I’d been looking at Joomla for some time but it just seemed too constricting for MY tastes.  I had looked at Drupal in the past and was not impressed.  Recently, about a week ago, I decided to take a look at it again.  My it has come a ways. 

I still love Wordpress for what it is.  A great blogging platform.  It’s also a great basic to medium content management system.  If you want to get a decent static site up, it’s still the way to go.  But, what if you want to do a bit more.  Multi-user blogging, extensible user profiles, forums, etc.  I think Drupal is the next step.  Of course, you can do some of this with Wordpress but in my opinion, not as cleanly as you can with Drupal.

I have been working with websites on many different levels for about 15 years.  Pretty much since the internet was opened up to commercial and private endeavors.  I’ve gone from coding sites on my own to the point where I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel and using various web frameworks to build sites.

I consider myself a big iron guy.  I know how to install, secure, and maintain a server quite well.  When it comes to designing and building a site, I like to use stuff that’s already out there.  I am an intermediate coder at best.

My experience with Drupal thus far allows for an established and fairly mature framework for me to use.  Especially in designing sites that have a specific purpose.

For example, currently TechnoChubby.com is running wordpress.  It does the job well, but as that site is growing, I find that I need to add some forums, an easy way to manage multiple contributors, the permissions what each of those contributors can post, and a better way to organize the site in general.  I believe Drupal will be the answer to growing that site into a robust community.

Another one is this site, for what it is, (just a personal blog)  I don’t see the need to update it to Drupal.  It will remain using Wordpress for now.  (but who knows)

I went to the Drupal LA Meetup tonight here in Santa Monica, I was impressed by the level of discussions and the overall “community feel”.   I think I can learn a lot from this group.  [ Drupal LA group at Drupal.com ]  Hopefully, within this group, I’ll be able to expand my knowledge of Drupal and find other uses for this framework.

I am still new to Drupal and what it has to offer, so far I am liking it.  Time will tell. 

I woke up one morning and decided it was time to stop.  I have not had a drink of alcohol since.   Prior to that, I was a drinking fool!   I was drinking like mad.  I had gotten to the point in my drinking where I didn’t remember what happened for DAYS in my life.

I can definitely say I have an addictive personality.  I’ve been addicted to every drug you can think of.  (I’ve not used any narcotic drugs in almost 20 years)  Drinking was my last real negative addiction.  It slowly spiraled out of hand till one day in August 2007 I said to myself “Enough is enough”.  I stopped.

The amazing part is that I don’t really miss it.  Plus, I don’t have any issues being around others that are drinking or being around alcohol in general.  I still like to go out and have a good time with friends, I drink juice or water and am still able to have a good time.  I believe that I am able to do this because I have replaced my addiction to alcohol with a new addiction,  focus and clarity.

Slowly over the course of the last two years, I’ve been getting a real sense of clarity back.  Some serious focus and function.  It’s almost intoxicating.  I look back now and see what I have been missing.  I really enjoy, and dare say, am addicted to this re-awakening of focus and function.

When I was drinking, I made some very poor decisions that affected me and those around me.  Especially my immediate family.  My thought processes were not 100% and I made bad choices. (no surprise there)  But now, I have this crazy sense of clarity.  I feel my choices and thought processes are great and am able to make great decisions about my life and those who rely on me.  That is addicting.

I don’t regret my choice to stop, in fact I am glad that I did.  Don’t worry, I am not on a soapbox saying “Drinking is bad” etc etc.  It’s just not for me.   If we hang out, feel free to imbibe, get inebriated, and get down right drunk.  You’ll always have a designated driver with me.  Hell, I’ll probably partake in the mayhem.  But, I’ll do it sober.

PS   To those that were negatively affected by me during my drinking and drunk phase of my life.  I truly apologize.

After some hiccups at the Santa Monica Apple store (idiot clerk and manager), I have a unibody MacBook Pro 17″ with the Anti-Glare (matte) option in hand and take it home.  It sits on the shelf for a couple of days while I get the stuff that I normally add to my MacBooks when I buy them.  Palmguard, keyboard protector, etc. (this took an act of congress because everyone was out of stock and I had to order it all)

Finally, I start to prepare it for my daily use.  This time, I decide that I am not going to do a migration of my old mac to my new mac using the Apple migration tools (Time Machine restore or the Migration Utility).  I decided to install everything from scratch and start with a “clean slate”.  I spend a good day or so installing everything one by one.  I even bought a new G-Drive Q 1TB for my backup volume.  It all goes pretty smooth.

Once all of the stuff I use to get my work done is all installed, I start using the new machine like I did my old one.  I started to notice that it was kind of sluggish and various intermittent problems started to happen.  (the main problem I noticed was that it would “hang” at various times with the spinning beach ball of death for a few seconds to a couple of minutes and then start humming along again like nothing happened)  I started to regret my purchase.

I did all the usual stuff, verified disk, permissions, etc etc.  Again, you must remember, I installed everything from scratch.  No remnants from the previous machine.  The one thing I should note, is that the Time Machine backups on the new G-Drive seemed to be going fine.

After all of that, it still seemed kind of buggy/sluggish/just not right.  I know, I had read some of the issues that others were having.  So, I figured I’d give it a couple days and see what I can do, if not would call support or take it back to the Apple Store and see what they could tell me.  I was still able to use it, albeit somewhat frustratingly.

The next morning, I get up and it’s still running, but I can’t get the screen to come back on.  I hard reset it and nothing. (OH, I got the signature Apple startup BONG!  Then nothing)  The system seemed like it was going through the boot process but nothing on the screen.

I then proceed to go through all the troubleshooting steps.  Forcing boot from CD, attempt to get it to go into Hardware Diagnostic mode, firewire boot, etc etc  all to no avail.  I decide to pack it up and return it.

This took an act of congress!  The clerks at the Beverly Center Apple store were very inflexible.  I won’t go into all the details, but I received a lot of attitude from the clerks and “lead on the floor”.  Finally, a manager “Jenny” was able to help me and provide me with a replacement and an explanation of what my options were and why some were not possible.  To be fair, I have gotten used to a certain level of service from the Las Vegas Town Square Apple Store because of the amount of business I have done there in the past.

I take this SECOND MacBook Pro home and fire it up.  At the appropriate portion of the initial login, I plug in the G-Drive and restore my settings from the Time Machine backup.  (I tested this backup  on another Mac here and verified it with no issues)  The restore to this new machine all goes smooth.

Now this machine so far seems to be running great.  It’s definitely not sluggish at all.  I’ve not seen the previous freezing.  I installed a couple games on it, World of Warcraft (of course) and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3.  These are blazing fast on this machine.

Then I go to my Screen Saver settings…  FREEZE, CRASH, BANG…  BEACH BALL!  The first App I have to force quit is my System Preferences.  LOL

I don’t panic.  I notice that everything else is running smoothly BUT this ONE thing.  I figure it’s an isolated issue.  I spend hours googling and doing research.  My diligence pays off!  I fix the issue…  (this is covered in depth on the TechnoChubby site – Click here to read it)  Compared to the issues with the last Mac, this was nothing.

I just fixed that issue a few hours ago.  I’ve had this SECOND unibody MacBook Pro 17″ for a couple of days now.   Everything is going smooth it seems (knock on wood).  All in all, it’s a slick ass machine.

I am liking my new setup.  Andrew’s happy he got my old (LOL) 17″ MacBook Pro (late 2008).  Mike got his 15″ and I think he’s happy with that.  I am using Mike’s old white MacBook (early 2009) to test out the idea of getting an Air or a unibody 13″ MacBook Pro for my take everywhere machine.

I need to note, that this posting could have easily been three or four times longer.  There were several other hiccups that occurred.  They were very minor compared to what I shared here.

Just to touch on a couple of things:

• Santa Monica Apple Store – Won’t go back unless I absolutely HAVE to.
• Beverly Center Apple Store – Thanks Jenny for your patience and understanding.
• Century City Apple Store – Thanks for your help
• iTunes Support – Thanks Jesse for getting my authorizations squared away
• Power Support Retail outlet Burbank – Thanks Steven for your help with my accessories
• Thanks swmbuk for the FIX!

Alright, that’s it.  Thanks for letting me share (and vent).

Man, isn’t that a kick ass video?

One of the reasons I got into kiting was because of various physical abuse that I have incurred over the years, I found that kiting was actually a sport that I CAN do and enjoy doing.  I started with simple 2 string stunt kites and have graduated to the “power” kites.  (power kites are what’s used in kitesurfing and what you see in this video)

I am working towards getting better at kitesurfing and look forward to parakiting some day.

Shameless plug: OZONE Kites ROCK!

One of the key words in the acronym GFE (Girl Friend Experience) is EXPERIENCE.  Providing a GFE service, should constitute the full EXPERIENCE, it should be a part of what you do regardless of the client.  Again, depending on the client, chemistry/compatibility levels are different, but this should not change your offering.

Yes, I understand that the client/provider relationship is a business one.  However, I feel that the less evident the “business” is, the better.

The bottom line in this posting is that one should ask.  Are you providing/seeking just sex? or are you providing/seeking an overall experience?  The latter is what the main part of GFE is all about.

Do you believe in astrology? Do you read what the stars say about you, checking the papers everyday? Here’s another take.

What is your sign?

AQUARIUS You have an inventive mind and are a progressive
thinker. You also lie a lot and are inclined to be careless
and impractical, making the same mistakes over and over.
Everyone thinks you are a jerk.

PISCES You have a vivid imagination and often think you are
being followed by the CIA. You have some influence over your
friends and people resent you for flaunting your power.
Underneath it all you lack confidence and are generally a
coward. Pisces people screw small animals and pick their
noses a lot.

ARIES You are the pioneer type and have strong leadership
tendencies, but you regard others with contempt. You are
quick tempered, impatient and don’t take well to advice.
You are a Melvin.

TAURUS You are down to earth and persistent. You are de-
termined and can work like hell. Most people think that
you are a pig headed not the best. You’re probably a
communist.

GEMINI You are quick and intelligent – a thinker. People
like you because you are bisexual, You are also a cheap bar
steward, expecting everything for nothing. Gemini’s are
notorious for thriving on incest.

CANCER You are extremely sensitive by nature and very
caring. You are a wimp, You are hopeless at making decisions
and that is why you will always be on welfare and you will
never be worth a lot.

LEO Leo people are born leaders but most people think they
are just pushy. Most Leo’s are bullies. They are assholes
who break down under honest criticism. Your arrogance is
disgusting. Leo People are thieving bullies who kiss mirrors
a lot.

VIRGO You are the logical type and detest disorder. Nit-
picking makes your friends sick. You are cold and
unemotional and often fall asleep while screwing. Virgo’s
make good bus drivers and pimps.

LIBRA Librans are lucky in employment and financial matters.
You are the artistic type and have a difficult time with
reality. If you are male then you are probably queer. Most
Libran woman are whores. All Librans die of V. D.

SCORPIO You are shrewd in business and cannot be trusted.
You will reach the pinnacle of success because of your
total lack of ethics. You are a perfect Son of a bitch.
Most Scorpio people are murdered.

SAGITTARIUS You are optimistic and enthusiastic with a
reckless tendency to rely on luck since you have no talent.
Most Sagitarians are drunks or pot heads. People laugh at
you a lot because you are always messing things up.

CAPRICORN you are conservative and afraid of taking risks.
You are basically a chickenshit. There has never been a
Capricorn of any importance, you should kill yourself.

I am a Pisces.  Ironically, I do believe the CIA is following me and I like to pick my nose.  Not sure about the small animal thing but you never know.