Day 17: 9/14/2011 | The Blog Blender

So here is the revelation of today: I can't keep up with more than one blog. Heck, I can barely keep up with one at a time. And I feel really bad about it. I've started multiple blogs and wish that I could update every single one of them all the time, but I can't.

That leads me right into the solution of this post. I think I'm going to end up combing at least two of those blogs, which would probably include this one. Right now, I am planning on combing this, my personal blog, and The Tech Blender, my technology focused blog.

"But how, Devon?" you're asking yourself, "a personal blog and a technology blog don't go together!" Well, before you get your pants in a bunch, let me explain. Since I started The Tech Blender back in February, 2010, I've been posting on and off but honestly, mostly off. It's hard for me to keep blogging on multiple different blogs. I also know that I will never make it big with The Tech Blender. I will never be hiring a staff, it will never be my full-time job. So why try to make it that?

I'm going to be turning this combined site into a personal blog about my life, my technology and everything that's going on around me. I'll be able to post anything without fear of it being out of the guidelines of the blog category.

So bear with me as I'm combining the sites, playing with templates and experimenting with different looks. Hopefully it will be done here soon.

Day 16: 9/13/2011 | Patch Tuesday

The second Tuesday of the September is upon us and you all know what that means. It's Patch Tuesday! If you're running Windows on any computer, there are updates available. Go and download them right now!

Now, for the non-techie readers in the audience, this is not the only day of them month that you should be updating your software. This is just the day that Microsoft comes out with all their big patches of the month. You should be updating your software anytime a new version is released. Especially big name software like Adobe products, browsers and things like Skype and MSN Messenger.

Ok, that was my general PSA for the day. I'm not really sure what happened to this post. I wasn't ready for it and I'm just not in the right mind to be writing I don't think. Nothing is really coming out the way I wanted it to. But I expected this to happen. I'm not going to be in the mood to write every single day for the rest of my life. I'm going to have days that just don't feel right, days that I don't know what to write about. Here's one. Refrigerator.

Day 15: 9/12/2011

Question: What are the important things in life? A couple of things today really made me think of how much I am enjoying my life and how great it actually is.

First, I started my new job at BrightPlanet. I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to use my skills, learn new ones and further myself in my career. A career that I really love. Computers are something that have not been around for long but I am glad I've gotten into them. I'm glad that I like my career choice now and I feel good knowing that I'm going to enjoy the rest of my working life.

The second thing that I did was played some Dance Dance Revolution! I try to exercise to make myself a little healthier, and DDR is something that I enjoy doing. Hopefully I keep it up every once and a while.

Last but probably the most important. I love being reminded that someone else loves me so much, that I know I'm never going to be alone again. Katie makes me feel like I'm actually wanted and I just get butterflies anytime I think about her. But more importantly, this is how I know she's a keeper: She made me a rage comic!

I really do have the best girlfriend in the world! :'D

Day 14: 9/11/2011

Two weeks. Fourteen days straight of writing on this blog (with the exception of one day I wrote the next morning because I completely spaced it...). But non-the-less, I'm proud of myself. I've stuck to it for two weeks and I plan on keeping it going. I have been doing some thinking though and I'm going to be switching this up a little bit to hopefully keep it more interesting for me and for everyone else.

As of right now, I've just been doing a recap of the day. I did this, then this, then I went here, then this happened. It's really boring. So instead of doing a recap, I'm going to pick one thing from the day and write a little bit more in-depth about that thing. Something I see, something I do, something I thought of or something that happens. I think this will be much more entertaining and helpful to everyone involved.

Some examples that I was thinking I could have used for the blog today: The fact that it's the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the season opener for the Vikings today that they lost..., going to the Humane Society today, something a little bit more important that I can talk about for a while. This also leaves the blog open to more than one post/important thing a day as long as I keep to the guideline of at least once a day.

So there you have it, the one thing I talked about today is the plan for the new way I'm going to utilize this blog and try to make myself better. Chances are it will be pretty easy to figure out tomorrow's topic, I start work at BrightPlanet tomorrow. That is also the reason I should get to bed....

Day 13: 9/10/2011

We had a fun, lazy day today. Katie, John and I woke up late and sat around the apartment for a while. Finally, we went out to the new BDubs with my sister Caity, for lunch. That place is pretty legit. They built the place right.

After lunch we came back to my place, John and I played Dead Island for a little bit. I finally figured it out and got it working on my computer.Then we had to make a run for ice cream for Katie so we went down to Peachwave and satisfied our hunger. We followed ice cream up with a quick trip down to the falls and a drive out to XTrux to say hi to my dad and Moose for a minute.

A quick trip to Hyvee for some corn on the cob for supper and we were set for the night. Corn, chislic, hot dogs and some drinks made for a great supper. Follow that up with a Ghost Adventures marathon and I truly feel like I succeeded with a lazy day.

Day 12: 9/9/2011

Another era in the life of Devon Schreiner has ended today. I am no longer an employee at the Minnehaha County Court House. Today was the last day of my internship. I learned a lot while I was there but it's time to move on.

In other news, Monday starts my new job at BrightPlanet as an IT Specialist. Even though I'm not really sure what to expect yet, I know that it is going to be a lot of fun and an amazing learning experience. But more on this on Monday after I go in for my first day.

Tonight after work, I came home, cleaned a little bit, washed my motorcycle and then Katie and John showed up for the weekend. We went to eat at Krav'n tonight. It was pretty good. I think the cotton candy was a little over the top though.

We made it home and ended up playing some Dance Dance Revolution. Sorry Caity! She's right below us in my apartment building. In other good DDR news, we unlocked one of my favorite songs from when I first bought the game, Kind Lady (Interlude). And with that, I'll leave you with a video of the song. Enjoy!

Day 11: 9/8/2011

Ahhhh, the feeling of sleeping in is a great one. That's exactly what I did today. I slept in until about 9am. My 8am class was cancelled so the next thing was choir at noon. It felt really good. Also since I was able to leave later, I decided to ride my motorcycle. Not only is that a more fun way to get there but the gas is a heck of a lot cheaper too. 

So I went to the couple classes I had, signed a petition to get the Libertarians on the ballet, picked up some paper work to turn my job into credit for an internship and confirmed that hopefully my financial aid will be in by Monday! Woohoo!

Then I got home, ate supper, watched an episode of 30 Rock(A Valentine's Day show where Jenna loses her stalker and Liz schedules a root canal so she doesn't have to be awake that day.) and then played a couple games of League of Legends.

I am kind of disappointed that we ended up just skipping the podcast tonight. One of the guys couldn't make it and we didn't really have much material anyway so we just decided to not do it. I really think we need to have a talk about what the future of the podcast is. I really love doing it but it's going nowhere fast right now. We need to figure out what to do with it otherwise I have a feeling it is just going to keep going downhill.

But I'm looking forward to tomorrow. It's Friday, my last day of work at the court house, I get to see Katie and we are definitely going to be doing something fun whether it be the drive-in or the Bike Night Finale, who knows! The sooner I go to bed the sooner it will be here though, so goodnight!

Day 10: 9/7/2011

Dang it! Day 10 comes around and I just completely forget about it. Didn't even cross my mind. So I'm going to try to make up for it. I think that getting it done sometime is just as important as doing it the actual day, I just don't want to get a couple weeks behind, because then it's just lame. And I don't want to be lame...

So work was good today. Second to the last day at the court house. I'm pretty excited for the last day, it will be a lot of cleaning and stuff. I'm going to try to get done with the Windows 7 upgrades I was assigned but I'm kind of doubting that's going to happen.

After work, it was time for Wednesday night Brother Suppers, and it was my turn to host! Of course, Jeff couldn't make it, but I still made some amazing burgers! Along with the burgers, I fried up some potatoes and make some of those pickle and cream cheese roll things. I have to say, I was happy with the meal. I like home cooked, simple, good meals like that. Give me burgers over fancy shmancy, expensive restaurant food any day.

After that I stayed up and got some of my Windows Administration lab done. It's taking forever because we are setting up our servers right now so it takes figuratively, a million years to do all the updates and installs that we need.

Then I stayed up late and Skyped with Katie! I didn't have to get up early because my 8am class was canceled!

Day 9: 9/6/2011

Tuesday means it's a school day. First day back after Labor Day weekend. I was up at 6am and in Wireless Communications by 7:30am. During my break before choir at noon, I ended up flashing CyanogenMod 7 onto my phone, throwing on an updated radio and playing with my newly flashed Thunderbolt. The GPS wasn't working quite right but many people commented that it could easily be fixed by flashing a different ROM and then restoring back. It didn't work and was way too long of a process. Flash forward to now and for some reason it magically works, I'm not complaining.

Tonight I played a couple of League games, I really love Teemo and we had a couple fun games. Then I remembered I'm hosting the Brother's Supper tomorrow so I figured I should do a little prep. I'm making these amazing burgers and fried potatoes tomorrow. Tonight I put together a couple of those pickle wrapped ham and cream cheese things. They are really good. I ate a few. But it should make for a good meal tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to my second to last day of work at the Courthouse tomorrow, there will be a lot of cleanup and general housekeeping stuff so it will be fun. That and I can't wait for this weekend. I'm not 100% sure what Katie has planned but I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun! :D

Day 8: 9/5/2011

So luckily, I remembered to blog before I got into bed today! Sadly, I should have been in bed a long time ago already. I put my laundry in right about supper time and forgot about it until about 10:30. So it's drying now.

On a better note, I have had stuff to do. I've been talking to Katie on Skype, blogging and trying to reroot my Thunderbolt. It's been a while since I tried the first time so I figured I would try again.

Earlier today, Katie and John swung through on their way to Vermillion and had lunch. We went down to HuHot, it's one of our favorites!

Keeping it short tonight though, going to go get my laundry and head to bed. Back to school in Madison tomorrow morning.

Day 7: 9/4/2011

Today was our last day in Minnesota. The family started out by going to church at the Church of our Lady of Victory in Fergus Falls. It was a nice service and not to far from my aunt and uncle's house where we were staying. We drove back to find a giant meal of scrambled eggs, sausage, toast, fruit and fried potatoes so we figured we should stay and eat some food.

Then we headed for home. Stopped in Watertown and got some Starbucks and my mom and I got into a big argument about who's frappuccinos were better, Starbucks' or McDonalds'. I'll give you one guess to who won :).

Then we made it to Sioux Falls where we went to eat at the Big Cheese. Pizza and beer always hits the spot. There I handed an old tablet off to my dad that I put Ubuntu onto. He's not very good with computers so we'll see how he does with Linux. Now I'm sitting at home relaxing. Looking forward to a day of seeing Katie and John and not much else tomorrow!

Also, if you want to see some pictures I took of my relative's game room, you can find them here. They are pretty ridiculous.

Day 6: 9/3/2011

Yay! Second blog post from my phone/Minnesota. Actually, I don't really like blogging on my phone, it takes too long. Today was also family pictures day. *sigh*

So we took a bunch of pictures, it was pretty nice outside so it wasn't too bad. Then we pretty much just ate, drank and had a good time with family. But I'm going to make this a quick post and end it before my battery dies. Goodnight!

Day 5: 9/2/2011

Alright, I'm up in Minnesota for Labor day, visiting some relatives and I don't have internet other than my phone. So you will have to bare with, I'm writing this with my phone.

Today was a big day for me. I'm still not sureif I can talk about it yet but I'll just say I have a job secured for after the court house job is done. So I interviewed and accepted a position today, then finished the business day upgrading computers to Windows 7.

After work, I drove to Watertown to meet my brother, then we drove the rest of the way to my aunt and uncle's.

Tonight was a lot of fun. We had some drinks, played some darts, and enjoyed some animals. If I don't post some pictures when I have real internet, yell at me because I got a couple good ones of all their taxidermy.

Overall tonight had been really fun. Seeing family after this long is always fun. I just wish that Katie could have come this weekend, that would have made it a million times better.

Also, their cat is really friendly! :)

Day 4: 9/1/2011

And September is upon us. What a crazy month. What are we going to do with it? Honestly, I'm not really sure, but it will probably be fun.

So today was kind of crazy. Started off with driving to Madison and then receiving a crazy email. I don't really want to talk about it to much until things are finalized but it's pretty crazy, I'll tell you that. But then I had some fun with the rest of my classes and made my way home.

Tonight was a Thursday night so Shaun, Corey and I recorded the podcast. You can find tonight's episode here. Sadly, while making my drink for the show I ended up dropping and shattering one of my glasses. I think that means I'm down to four of those glasses now, I should probably look into plastics.

But, it's time for bed now, I've got a big day ahead of me tomorrow. Fun stuff and then after work I'm leaving for Minnesota with the family.