As the nostaliga set in, I found myself on Google, which led me to the official Tokien site. To my surprise, it’s showing a new release, The Children of Húrin! This is apparently from the first age of Middle Earth, the time prior to The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. Can’t wait to get a copy of this!

Here are the Rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Players start with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their 8 things) and post these rules. (**if you’re a non-blogger, you can e-mail them!)
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 8 people to tag and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them, “you’re tagged, now go read my blog.”

8 Things About Me

1. I really like being a dad. I have known I wanted to be a dad since I was 6, and it has not been disappointing. It’s very challenging and takes alot out of me, but it is just one of the coolest things I have ever experienced.
2. I am exceptionally introverted. Shocks lots of people who know me, but yep, but big crowds and lots of interaction are actually an energy sink for me, not an energy source.
3. I love playing World of Warcraft. I missed the whole paper RPG thing growing up (grew up Baptist, Dungeons & Dragons was of the devil; bright side is that gives me +10 Charisma), but looks like I probably would have loved it. I have to limit my play time or I’d probably never get anything done.
4. I am partially colorblind. Many guys have some degree of colorblindness; but mine became more pronounced after LASIK surgery. The red/green/brown realms are the ones that can challenge me most. What’s hilarious is how people react to hearing that; they start pointing out crap like “now that Falcons jersey there is red”; good God, people.
5. I am an industrial adhesives and marking guru. Yep, apprenticed under my dad for over 10 years in that industry. That’s the career field I left to go into software development. The principles from that field that translate over to software are surprisingly high; I should blog about that sometime.
6. I am country. As in from the country. Country as 3 rows of okra. And proud of it. It’s so hilarious to hear people who grew up in suburbia scoff at me having grown up in the country. A rural setting is way-the-hell more real than suburbia. Real life is not strip malls, soccer camp, and processed food. Seeing the cycle of birth, life, and death is real life. Doing manual labor on a farm to produce food is real life. Learning to hunt is real life. The lack of ethnic diversity did suck, though.
7. I both dislike and do not understand most team sports. Played American football as a kid and some of high school; did not understand it. Faked it the whole time. Ran around enthusiastically until they blew the whistle. I still wonder exactly what the hell a post pattern is. Have had basketball and baseball explained to me several times; still don’t get it. Don’t want to; will probably have a son who loves it, at which point I’ll have to re-enroll in remedial sports comprehension.
8. A military-style flat top haircut is the hairstyle I have worn the longest throughout my life. That surprises some people, since I have a ponytail now.

I hereby tag u8ashark, dianne marsh, mike levin, bruce eckel, mark ramm, james ward, brian panulla, and ben geyer. Let’s hear it; 8 things.

Just why is that? Is the quality of fresh produce such that the author is numb to this? Is it an indifference to the plight of slave laborers in an agrarian economy?

It’s tough to say; I think the answer lies in this whole cracking of the corn…

It’s not that I have forgotten about it; I have 4 unfinished topics, 2 of which might actually be worth someone reading. Blogging just hasn’t done much for me these past months — or is it years already? Yeah, now that I look back through the archives, my posting seems to have dropped off sharply right around the time 2 things happened; the start of my company and the birth of my daughter. Those happened within 3 weeks of one another. It was a hectic time; perhaps it stayed that way. The only flurries of frequent posts were actually centered around Open Space meetings with Bruce it seems. That stands to reason; those events were oases of peace and inspiration amid the desert that was my first independent contract; quite a soul-drainer, that one.

It certainly hasn’t been a case of not having topics to write about; my encounter and subsequent embrace of Python, my disillusionment (gasp!) with the Rails community after checking it out for awhile, discovering Domain-Driven Design (or did it discover me?) and the revelations that have ensued; tons going on, just haven’t felt inspired to write much.

It seems like the dry spell might be passing, but it’s too early to pass judgement. What I do know is that this is the first I’ve felt like updating this thing in forever.

“Motivated self-staring individual; Team player”

Huh.

“This is an actual virtual product.”

And that’s where we pick up in the story…

I bought the phone from TigerDirect; they had the best price on an unlocked Nokia N90 that I could find while still being a store I knew of and felt I could trust. When the phone arrived, to my shock it had a UK charger. Weird! But, it was 2 days before I was going out of town for 10 days, and I had the phone rushed so I’d have it before leaving. I popped over to Radio Shack, bought an adapter, and got on with life.

So I am on the phone with Nokia USA support, going through the steps for a warranty repair scenario. After they run my serial number, I am placed on hold for several minutes. The representative comes back to chide me for having bought a non-US phone, and says that if I ship it they will return it to me unrepaired. He goes on to explain that less-honest retailers will purchase overseas unlocked GSM phones and then sell them here. Purchasers of these phones basically forego any support or warranty for these phones except in the phone’s country of origin. Who knew phones could have nationalities and be refused care when not in their home country? Perhaps Nokia should set up embassies for these poor, displaced phones.

Well, as you can imagine I am totally ticked by now. I call up TigerDirect and start in on them. Right now there’s an agreement of working out an exchange, though I am having to reiterate in every paragraph of the conversation that I do not want another UK phone. Heck, I didn’t want a UK phone the first time. My “case” is awaiting manager approval; I have to call back my phone’s social worker tomorrow.