Well I finally got out to visit my older brother, Ted, the other day. Which means I’ve finally got my stuff from him.

Ted had been holding some things for me while I was Indianapolis. And among those things were some Christmas gifts I’d sent back with him. So I had a little mini-christmas last night while going thru my suitcase which was returned to me.

Unfortunately one of the gifts was apparently a suitcase full of laundry.

In other news: a friend of mine from my home town, Melanie, has moved to Chicago. She’s got a swanky apartment in Lincoln Park. And she’s recently enganged! So for many reasons: my congratulations go out to Melanie!! Welcome to Chicago, Mel.

More news later…

Well, I got IM working at work. Thankfully. Hopefully that lasts.

Unfortunately I can not browse to the Star Wars: Galaxies web site. Apparently gaming sites are blocked by the URL filter. There could be HUGE news in the Star Wars Galaxies world right now…and I’ll have no idea!! Sigh…oh well. I’ve got to get used to it…I mean I’m on the security team here.

And I can, of course, still blog. And we all feel greatly relieved on that point I’m sure.

This blogging in the morning is a turn of event I wouldn’t have expected. Or, more accurately, this blogging SO EARLY in the morning is an event I wouldn’t have expected. But as it turns out, it’s a pretty good way to start the day.

I have two pieces of news for you this morning. Many of you have been asking about how my first day went – read on for a review. But before I get to that I want to point you to the web site of a friend of mine, Kevin.

Site of the day

Kevin is another person who is helping me test my content management and administration tool. It’s a great site with lots of adorable pictures of his kids. His site is worth a look on this alone, but now there is even more reason for you to go there…

Kevin spent New Years with Doug in Indianapolis and he has posted not only some great pictures of Sterling…but also some short movie clips!

Head over to http://www.khicks.com and check out his features section! While you’re there be sure to sign his guestbook and tell him David sent you!

My first day of work

My first day of work, yesterday, went really well! The people there are really nice!

The office is a typical office really. I’ve been spoiled by having worked in very flashy offices before – but this is your fairly typical office building.

They take computer network security there seriously – and have locked down what (we) the end users can do. So, I can’t check my davidmeade.com web mail sadly. I think I’ll be able to check it from another interface like Yahoo! mail – but the davidmeade.com interface is better. (Keep sending your email … I’ll get it thru Yahoo! if I have to.)

It’s also unclear as to if I will be able to use IM. (Not being able to may kill me…I’m told IM withdraw is extremely painful) But time will tell.

As to what I did my first day: I went to a meeting, filled out about 4 score and 7 forms required of new hires, got a project, and struggled to come to terms with using Lotus Mail.

All in all it was alot of fun, and I’m still really excited about the position.

Despite all the limitations on what the end users can do on the network, I should be able to blog still. So I will try, perhaps, to update you via the davidmeade.com blog over lunch.

Well I’m off to my first day of work in 6 months!

It’s unclear what today has in store for or if I’ll have a chance to blog later so I thought I’d write a really quick one on my way out.

The CTA web page says the commute should only be about 20 minutes. I find that hard to believe but hopefully it’s not too much more than that. I’ve left plenty of buffer time today, however, and plan to time it. (Stay tuned for results).

I’ll try to post an update at lunch if possible.

Well, its over. What’s over you ask? My eternal weekend is over. I have just accepted a position with Aon’s Information Security Group – I actually start tomorrow! (Wednesday the 8th)

That’s right…I’m no longer unemployed! And tomorrow at 8:30am – when I sign the papers to make it official – I rejoin corporate America!

The position is “Manager of Architecture and Engineering”, and I’m really excited about it!! (I’ll describe the position once I have a better idea myself )

So despite all the head ache’s and worry that being laid off causes… it’s all been worth it. I got a bit of a vacation and came out of it with a new position that I’m really looking forward to! (all right, all right…it was a bit more than “a bit” of a vacation – 6 months)

And, if it weren’t for my getting laid off I certainly wouldn’t have rebuilt davidmeade.com to use mySQL/PHP…so I guess we all benefited from my getting laid off!

I’ll post a more informative blog later…right now, I have to go concentrate on not realizing how dreadfully tired I am.

I can’t seem to sleep again tonight. (I didn’t sleep AT ALL Sunday night).

I managed to sleep a little in the afternoon (yesterday) so I’m not completely without rest … but I’ve been WIDE AWAKE since about midnight. I can’t get back to sleep and now it’s 4:30am.

I’m also starving … I think I’m gonna go find a 24 hour cafe, get an omelette, and just start the day … like 9 hours early.

Check back … blogs are a brewin’.

Doug has finally got new pictures of Sterling (his Weimaraner puppy) online at his website (http://www.dougmeade.com)

Go check it out…tell ‘em uncle Dave dent you.

So tonight I decided to do something valuable with my time.

Having many valuable computer games I decided to play a few of them. But, alas, computer games only last so long – and I had to find something else to do.

Trying to stick with the “valuable use of time” idea I decided to do dishes…something I have been putting off for far far far FAR TOO Long!

Unfortunately just when I started to think I’d make some progress in the dishes…I broke a glass mug – one I really liked too!

So…I had to stop what I was doing and clean up broken class glass…which of course had shattered and gone into about 20 other classes glasses/pots/pans.

Thankfully it was about this time that Doug called me and let me know that he got more pics of Sterling online! (I gave him a pre-beta version of a photo gallery application I’m making – and he got it to work for him – it makes photo gallery updates very easy.) So, now my valuable time is required in updating my site to make sure all of you – the loyal visitors to davidmeade.com – know about some ADORABLE new pictures of Sterling: The Amazing Wonder Pup.

sigh…well…that’s done….now what?

Now you can have Sterling as your AOL Instant Messenger Buddy Icon! Shown with her classic funny face.

I’m testing some new features on davidmeade.com … some features may be broken while the test is on.

Thank you for your patience.