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Man, I don’t know where to begin. There have been some big changes. For the past two weeks I’ve really wanted to talk about them, but I haven’t been able to until now. I guess I’ll just start by diving in and seeing where I end up.

I gave my notice yesterday to my current employer, Arkansas.Net. It’s not because I’m burnt out on programming or that I hate the work or the people. On the contrary, I really like working with Arkansas.Net. But I was presented with an opportunity that I just can’t refuse.

I got a call last week from a company based in Bentonville, America’s Car-Mart. They quickly needed a programmer who is familiar with Visual Basic .NET to come in and work for them, and seeing as how I’ve been studying for my MCSD I have the knowledge to do the job (plus some experience at my current job). One of the employees there who used to work for Arkansas.Net referred them to me and they asked if I wanted to interview for the job. I agreed and after some testing (including sitting in front of a computer and having to write a VB .NET program) they offered me the job at a significantly higher salary than what I’m currently making. Plus, the Car-Mart offices are 6 miles from my house as opposed to the 32 miles I drive everyday now. With gas prices the way they are, that’s a significant savings each month.

I have to say that the decision was pretty difficult even though by the numbers it is a no-brainer. I agonized all weekend on whether I should accept the job or not, and eventually came to my senses about the whole thing. I need to advance my career and this is the perfect way to do it. So I gave my notice yesterday to the CEO of Arkansas.Net (my immediate boss is out of town which made things more difficult). He was understandably upset, but I know that they will bounce back and be just fine. I wish them well in all they do and I know that this will turn out to be a good change for them as well as for me.

Lori and I will be staying in Arkansas over Thanksgiving, because we’re both on call. We got ourselves a big turkey and all the fixings, so we plan to celebrate with just the two of us (although I will be making pet-friendly plates of food for the animals). Hopefully we’ll get some time to come up during Christmas to see our family and friends. We also are wanting to visit Oklahoma the weekend of December 4th and 5th, but we’ll have to see how things go first. I’ll send an e-mail to the BuddyList when we know for sure.

UPDATE: Well, it looks like I won’t be on call during Thanksgiving now, but Lori still is on call so we’re still stuck in Arkansas.

The past few days have been pretty hard. For the most part I’ve stuck to my diet of having 3 energy bars spread out during work, and a pretty reasonable dinner. Monday night we made Pad Thai after finding some Tamarind paste at a local Asian food market. Tuesday we grilled chicken breasts and melted some smoked gouda on top. We served that with corn and some club crackers (for the rest of the gouda). Exercise has been going well and I hope to try out some pilates tonight (so please pray for my well being).

The only problem was last night. I got home from work, and wasn’t home for 5 minutes when the power flickered a couple of times and then went out. I went around and lit some candles and looked for our MagLite waiting for Lori to come home.

When Lori got home she said there were some construction crews furiously working and that all of Centerton was without power. My current theory is that a stupid construction crew digging with a backhoe dug up something they shouldn’t have, resulting in our power loss for most of the evening.

When the power came back on, we were both too tired to cook, so we decided to go grab some food. At that time the cravings kicked in and it was overwhelming! The only thing I can think of is that there is something in fatty, greasy food that has a very real addictive quality to it.

All I could think about was having a burger from McDonald’s. Sadly, I caved in and ordered a double quarter pounder. Hopefully I can make up for it today with my exercise and good eating habits. I don’t feel that overwhelming desire for fat today so hopefully that desire is placated for now.

Firefox 1.0 is officially out! For those of you waiting until a “stable” 1.0 version to be released, this is it! I highly recommend that you try out this excellent new web browser. It is a lot more secure than Internet Explorer is and has tons of new features such as tabbed browsing, inline page searching, etc. It has an extension system that really helps expand the feature set and customize it to your own liking.

Just try it for 5 days. It’s free and there isn’t any spyware/malware. If you don’t like it after 5 days, uninstall it and go back to your other browser.

Here’s the deal: My last foray into weight loss netted some awesome results. I was able to lose 30 pounds, getting back down to the weight I was when I graduated high school. Sadly, that is still overweight. And since then I’ve slacked off a lot.

For my height (69 inches or 175 cm) and age (25 years) I should be between 129-169 pounds based on medical recommendations, with a BMI range of 19-25 kg/m^2. A couple of different scales recommend different ranges. Currently, my weight is hovering around 260 (I’ve gained 10 pounds since my last diet) and my BMI is 38.4 kg/m^2. So my goal is to get down to 160 pounds, losing 100 pounds off my frame. That’s going to take some serious work, but I have a pretty decent plan to get there.

Sunday Lori and I decided to change our eating habits pretty dramatically. No more fatty burgers and fries from fast food places, and no more sugary chocolates (except on free days). Fast food will be limited to salads or grilled chicken sandwiches with water, tea, or diet cola to drink. The diet colas will be reduced as well. Around the house we mainly drink Diet Rite which has no sodium, caffeine, or asperthame. It’s sweetened with Splenda so it is healthier than Diet Coke.

The biggest problem I’ve been having is going out to lunch at work. We’ll go as a group and get large burgers from Red Robin or Sodie’s, fatty Chinese buffet food from JD China, or thick fried soul food from AQ Chicken. Needless to say, when I go out to eat at work it is big, filling, and unhealthy.

To fix that problem I bought a bunch of nutrition bars at Sam’s Club this weekend like I did before. I’ll have three bars during work, all spread out during the day. I’ll eat a bar at ten, one at noon, and another at three. That and plenty of water should be plenty. We’re going to eat at home more to keep us from going out and eating unhealthy food from restaurants.

Thai food is still allowed, but that’s because I’m addicted to it.

Not everyone would consider our new diet to be healthy, but to me it is a drastic change and I know it will help me get to my new goal. For example, yesterday I had a salad from Burger King with a bottle of water, and for dinner I made a spinach and cheese Tortilloni with pesto sauce. Today I will have my bars and then for dinner I’ll probably make some pad thai or grilled chicken and rice.

The diet I’m following is pretty close to the Body 4 Life, and I plan on having a free day where anything goes. So I’ll work hard all week sticking to my plan, and then one day during the week (probably Saturday) I’ll eat whatever I feel like.

Another vital component to reaching my goal is exercise. My plan is to go straight from work to the gym and alternate between cardio and weight training. I’ve got my gym bag with me today and I’m pretty pumped about it. I’ll write more details tomorrow.

It’s Friday.

Growing up Friday always felt like a holiday to me, for it meant the beginning of two days of freedom sandwiched between the mundane reality of life. It meant two days of staying up late and having fun. It signified a time when I could just hang out with my friends and relax. So I should be excited about the start of a new weekend, shouldn’t I?

Sadly, I still feel a little downtrodden, but I think it may be because of the weather and something going around. I started having some pretty bad flu-like symptoms that really made me feel unfocused and weak. I countered that attack with the sharp blade of two akla-seltzer tablets and now I feel better.

On the bright side, I ordered an iPod Mini today. I opted for the blue model and I can’t wait to start loading music and audiobooks on it. We plan on getting one of the new 60Gb photo iPods in the spring but this will be a great first step into the trendy world of mp3 players.

One final thought: be sure to watch the Star Wars: Episode III Teaser Trailer (Quicktime MOV format; ~10Mb). I can’t freaking wait until May! I honestly think that this movie will more than make up for the lackluster performances/plot/writing of the first two episodes.

I finally uploaded some of the pictures we took on our trip to Rockport to visit Lisa and Eric. We used a new camera, a Fujifilm FinePix 3.2 megapixel camera, so some of the pictures came out blurry. I’m not used to using a camera that has so many features and settings.
Anyway, you can view the pictures in our online picture gallery. Be sure to visit Lisa and Eric’s page for more pictures. Hopefully they’ll have some pictures of Kaylee uploaded soon!

Have you ever had a day where you wake up but wish you haven’t? I’m not speaking about days where you dread some deadline at school or that you are nervous about a job interview, but days where there is some creeping malaise in your head that you just can’t shake. Kind of like when you’re on a walk and you run into a spiderweb. No matter how much you pull it sticks around and you wonder if at the other end of the silk sits a spider pissed off and ready to attack.

I feel like I’m wrapped up in the spider’s web, but I don’t know why. Nothing bad is going on in my life right now, but there’s still the odd sense of sadness that keeps coming like a pulse of cold air from an oscillating fan on a chilly day. I don’t understand why it keeps returning. Is it loneliness? Is it a product of my diet? Is it something deep and psychological or is it just bad gas?

I’m not quite sure, but I seem to be having these spells of intense emotions lately and I’m beginning to be concerned. More than likely it is nothing but the changing weather and a lack of enough exercise that is causing my body to creak and slow like the winding of an old grandfather clock, but I don’t know.

Perhaps part of it has to do with my lack of a degree currently. Since I haven’t completed school yet, and it doesn’t look like I’ll return any time soon, I feel like a failure. But I’m starting to accept that a degree doesn’t mean everything especially in light of proper work experience and real knowledge (as opposed to book learning). So I don’t think that’s it.

I won’t bore you anymore with my rambling thoughts. It’s nothing really serious, anyway. It feels like I’m run down and tired, but nothing to get excited about. Maybe I should put on some Pixies or some TMBG to help clear my head.