random thoughts -

Chicago

So I’m in Chicago for a work conference. I’m supporting all the IT needs of my company’s booth. It’s going pretty well for the most part. Occasionally you have to try and fix something as quickly as possible that randomly went wrong. Its been kind of fun. The days are long, but its not too bad. The shortest day has been 10 hours.

The cool part is getting to see a big city. Having lived in the suburbs my whole life, it’s quite different. I’m taking the train and/or cabs to work everyday. The buildings are huge and the architecture is impressive. I wish I had time to do some more touristy stuff and see more of the city. I would probably never visit Chicago on my own, so getting to see it while working has been interesting.

It’s been a fun trip so far and I’ve still got two more days of the conference to go. I’m ready to get home and see my family. The cold weather is another thing I won’t miss. I think it be cooler to visit in the spring or summer.

That’s all for now. Later.

Derek

PT Test

Army Life, random thoughts / By Derek Creason

A new fiscal year in the guard and that means it’s time for a pt test at drill this weekend.

Success! I passed. I’m proud of myself for never having failed one in my almost 5 years in the army. Although for some reason I always get nervous about them. This one I was a bit more nervous about since Caroline was just born 3 weeks ago and my training for the test took a serious hit due to taking care of a newborn.

But I got over 75% in each category for a score of 236. I’m happy with that.

On a side note, I don’t understand how some of these kids continue to fail. You know the test is coming and you know what is required to pass. Just google it! Do the math and put in some effort for a month or two before the test. It’s not rocket science. I’m old and body parts hurt, but I can still pass them.

Ok rant over.
Bring on the holiday food.

Derek

Slight Delay

random thoughts / By Derek Creason

So I’ve been slightly delayed in updating the old blog. I just spent over 2 hours trying to figure out why apache kept railing my server. I tried migrating it twice. I switched between php as an apache module, fastcgi, and fpm. I switched back and forth between apache and nginx. Turns out the likely culprit was over 10k spam comments on my blog. guess I should have updated wordpress and my anti-spam plugins more often.

In the mean time, I’ve disabled comments completely site wide. So hopefully that should help. I’ll say I’m going to try and update the blog more, but who knows if I’ll do it. I need to redesign my whole site and my blog. Maybe in my free time between grad school, 3 kids, army, work, and stress.

But progress is progress.

Derek

Semi-Annual Update

random thoughts / By Derek Creason

So its been a while. Here are some updates.

I started a new job at Cerner in April.

I lost 20 lbs in jan-feb. I have since gained 10 of it back due to feet injuries sidelining my exercise.

I got my ham radio license and have been starting to play around with that.

I went to WLC in April for the Army.

We finished one room in the basement before Julie came to visit for 2 weeks in August.

Belle is growing so fast and talking with new words everyday.

This summer has been filled with alot of car repairs. No fun.

Check Amy’s blog for more detailed and regular updates. http://www.wifehatmomhat.com

Maybe I will start blogging more.

Back to Civilian Life…

Army Life, random thoughts / By Derek Creason

So I’m back from 9 months of training with the army. If you want to know what it was like, go join the army. Or just ask me sometime and I’ll be glad to tell you some stories.
So I am back home and adjusting to my civilian life. This includes, but is not limited to the following: not exercising every morning at 5am, having 2 kids now, going back to work, going to army drill once a month, driving my car again, working on the house and other projects in my free time, and trying to limit my intake of caffeine among many other things.
So if I haven’t said hi or got a chance to hang out with you yet, give me a few more days or better yet call me. I’d be glad to do whatever. I’m still playing catch-up on my life.
Thats all for now. Later.

Derek