Ham

So for those of you who have been following this over the months, my wife and I have finally successfully completed the visa process to have her become a permanent resident here. We just had our couple's interview the day before Thanksgiving where they see us both in person to check if we're bullshitting or not.

We first mailed our forms back in Sept of 2006, so that makes it about 14 months long for this process altogether. A little over $1000 worth of application fees, TONS of paperwork, a few dozen phone calls... finally pau.

The interview wasn't bad. We had a BAG full of all the applications and information with us. The instructions were clear that we had to bring all this stuff...including PROOF of our relationship. So I had all our lovey-dovey Hallmark cards with us that we mailed to each other, all our trip & wedding photos, receipts for trips, etc etc.

So we sit there at the interview and nervously watch as this local lady starts stamping my wife's passport. Meanwhile I keep telling myself, "Smile...be friendly. These people don't want to be here anymore then we do...so be good!"

Then...the lady starts talking about how tired she was because she spent the entire evening the day before getting ham for her Thanksgiving feast. OH, that was the open door... I talked ham with her for the next 5 minutes and we were golden. She didn't even look at any of our paperwork at all.... I was like "OH, so where'd you find the ham?" "OH! We go shopping at that grocery store too! You mean they didn't have it there?" "Is that ham that good?!"

Heck give me an extra 5 minutes I might have even been invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the interviewer's house. I had to sample that ham recipe she kept talking about!

Anyway, we're good...2 years we don't have to worry about the US Immigration office again. Good riddance!

Ms Buddha

Here's me cavorting with my new band "Ms Buddha". I know, don't ask. I personally think the name is slightly retarded, but the rest of the gang likes it. /shrug. None of our bandmembers are Buddhists or anything... I don't get it, but maybe I'm just slow.

My wife came to check out the gig for the first time this past weekend. She hasn't run off to go get divorce papers yet so I figure we were halfway decent or she's being a sport. I'm sure punk music wasn't in her list of things she'd expected when she was growing up dreaming of her future husband hehe.

This was only our 2nd gig ever, it seems like we're not doing half bad. Each time there was maybe 30-40 people in the room (trust me that's not bad for a new band with practically no promotion), and the feedback we get after is pretty positive. I think we earned in the order of maybe $150 for our first shows. We're RICH BEAAATCH!!! I'm quitting my day job.

I'm so anti-rockstar these days. I'm into it....but I'm not INTO it, does that make any sense? I'm the only one wearing earplugs all the time, I like leaving almost immediately after playing, I don't socialize with other bands, & I hate carrying my equipment to and from the show. Am I just getting too old? The other 2 guys in the band are my age...why do they enjoy it so much? Am I just jaded after playing in bands for over 15 years?

Different priorities I guess.

I guess I'll just go with the flow and see where this takes us.

Happy Thanksgiving

Who needs designers when you can order your own MakeMyLogoBigger cream & Whitespace Eliminator spray for your next website or advertising project?

I got a kick out of most of these...I think every designers been asked to do these things one time or another in their career.

I've been spending some nights out at the KoOlina Beach Club courtesy of one of my clients who has a timeshare out there. It's pretty amazing and luxurious...although my wife and I still have to work so we've been trucking out to town at 4:30am in the morning each day to avoid the traffic rush. Neither of us are morning people so it's quite rough in the morning, but the few hours we've had each evening out there were quite nice. Tonight's our last evening out there, so I hope to take my camera and tripod out there to see if I can take some long-exposure night shots from the lanai. If the stars are out, it should make a beautiful shot.

Looks like this Thanksgiving my family will be trekking back out to Kapolei to have turkey at a friend's house as well. I'm putting my poor old car through a lot of stress these few days. You know that car is squeaking and cracking more and more lately.... I don't think anyone feels that safe in it anymore. I think right after Xmas we'll have to look into a new set of wheels. If only I can convince my wife that we really need that BMW to survive....

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Wife...

OMG I think I married the anti-christ. Hehe. Alright alright, it's not that bad.

My wife doesn't seem to ever need to stop. If she's not working, she spending the night studying stocks, watching financial TV stations, studying lease options for cars, browsing realtor databases, logging our grocery list in a spreadsheet to study price changes, etc. I keed you not. She practically has all the Safeway produce prices memorized by now and the other day we were test driving a car for fun and she ended up asking questions to the salesman that I never even heard about..."money factor?!"

The thing is, I find it all very admirable. She's a woman that knows what she wants and will commit to that 24 hours a day.

On the other hand, I'm different...yes I'm driven with goals in my life, but I value my downtime as well. Sometimes I just want to do absolutely nothing and veg behind the TV, or go take a nap at the beach. Heck I grew up in Hawaii for God's sake. Plus in order for me to be creative, I gotta be in a happy state of mind...after doing 3 hours of accounting work and expenses there's just nothing left in me to do something inspirational.

Now she doesn't force me to do things...she says she does those things to "relax". That's fine. If she wants to do expense spreadsheets to relax while I go kill a "God of War" on my Playstation, that's kool and the gang. Only it makes me feel SOOO guilty these days I just can't find any way to relax anymore. We can be like watching a TV show together and she's perfectly ok walking away from it midway though to go clean the house... what am I supposed to do? Sit there and just lift my feet as she vacuums past me? "You missed a spot over there Honey"

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. That will be a swift kick out to the sofa for the night.

Thank god for TiVo or I'd never catch the ending of any of my shows.

I think I'll get used to this eventually, I hope. I need to find a way to shift my wife into low gear or I'll simply need to crawl into a dark corner to find a happy place.

Mayonnaise

A friend of mine had his mom pass away suddenly and unexpectedly this past Monday... I just found out. Kind of a shocker.

But it comes at a good point. Today I'm getting all frazzled over different work situations and customer issues...but when I hear about this it kind of reminds me of what's most important in life. The rest is solvable.

Funny that mom just sent me these little corny emails that gets passed around. I kind of brushed it off this morning but I guess someone is trying to tell me something:

When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began , he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sa nd . The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions-- and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else--the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first--the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

Honolulu Lightroom

There's a NAPP tour conference for Lightroom coming up on December 3rd here in Honolulu. Lightroom Tour.

I encourage you to go if you're into photography. Last year Scott Kelby came for a Photoshop thing around this same time and it was good fun. I learned some good tips that I used all year. I'm a little disappointed this time it's only talking about Lightroom instead of Photoshop....but I understand this is the latest photography tool that's got all the photo nutz clamoring for information on how to use it.

I'm still having fun with photography. There's yet another reality show on VHI now called "The Shot" which is set in the Top Model format. Only this time it's about the people behind the camera. I'm not sure if this show will last very long, but it's interesting hearing the judges comments on what makes or breaks good photography.

My own stuff is OK. There are a couple of things there that I've had people tell me I should try selling. A friend of mine offered to do some canvas stretch prints for me. So maybe when things calm down a bit for me I'll take him up on that offer and get some photos up in some art gallery somewhere and see what happens.

Work is providing me some crazy challenges lately. Both physical and mental. You know the HARDEST part of my work isn't the design part...it's the project management part. Or more directly, it's the customer relationship part...from the pre-sale part, during the projects, and after.

They don't teach you ANY of this kind of stuff in college. It's just learning by the school of hard knocks. I got some welts on my head I tell ya. I guess I'll just roll with it and consider each one a learning situation for the next crazy thing that will happen.

Broken Stuff

I've always been kinda satisfied with my "stuff". For the past 3 or 4 years I could honestly look around me and say I had most of what I needed to be comfortable. Seriously...I had a running car that was pretty decent looking despite being 13 years old, I had my TV that was ok, my TiVo that got all my shows, a decent Hi-Fi that will probably last me another 15 years... I was golden.

Now suddenly this year everything seems to be breaking I don't know what it is.

My baby of a car which I've nurtured for a good part of 8 or 9 years now and some 60K miles...is suddenly falling apart. The air conditioner gave up it's last breath the other day, the steering mechanism makes all kinds of squeaking and crackling noises when I turn, and the mileage on it sucks now.

My TV... I still have to hit it a few times like the Fonz to get the picture to show up. The same goes for my A/V switch for my equipment. I have to wiggle the little switches just right otherwise the picture flips around like a picture book. Some kind of loose wiring I suppose...reminds me of the old days with the old NES game system where you had to blow on the cartridges to get some of the games to boot up.

My living room light has started to flicker on and off...

Summammabeeetch.

My wife has begun thinking I got these things out of the flea market and I'm piss poor. I have to convince her, "No baby...this stuff was GOOD shit at one time!"

I'm certainly sick of all this stuff falling apart though.

This and That

The punk band I inadvertently became a regular member of had our first show last night. If some of your regular readers know, I mentioned I went over to help an old college friend fill in for a bassist because they couldn't find any. I've kinda been out of the punk scene in years...I'm certainly mellowing out in my old age.

Anyway, I couldn't say no when they asked me to help for one practice...two led to three....and now months of practice later I guess I can't back out now.

Nah nah, it isn't all bad. I needed to do something extra curricular besides work all the time and plus it probably gives Florence some time to herself at home while I'm out playing hardcore music getting my fingers all calloused up again.

I digress. Anyway, it was my personal first gig in many years. It turned out pretty good actually. The other members of the band are pretty well connected with the scene so there were more people showing up then we'd expect for a first gig. I certainly felt like the senior citizen in the room though.

My wife's got me running around a lot lately. Heheh. Well, it's a good thing I guess. We've finally got all her paperwork and SS# worked out so now she can finally start work and let Uncle Sam take her money away just like the rest of us. Sucker.

So Queen's Hospital hired her and now I'm waking up at some god forsaken hour in the mornings taking her to orientations and HR visits to get her ready for work. The other day I'm dropping her off for a visit to the office....I wasn't expecting to get out of the car I was half awake. So anyway I decide to help her find the office...with my major bed-head, pants half falling around my waist (forgot my belt), got my 10-year old glasses on, and I hadn't shaved. Oh the people at the office must have wondered if I was one of the mental patients.

We're getting her a driver's license, getting her a cell phone, bank accounts, etc etc. Kinda nutz. This girl is non-stop. What did I get myself into?

Shhhhh! Don't tell her I said that she'll knock me side of the head and I'll have to clean the bathroom for the 50th time this week.

Work is brisk. Challenges come up each day. Today I put in 70 miles from Hawaii Kai to Kapolei and back again for some meetings. This might not sound like a lot to you folks in the Mainland, but trust me...in Hawaii terms that's freakin' FAR. This week I filled in as substitutes to 2 other networking chapters as well...got me going over to some Kailua Golf club one day and Ala Moana the next. How am I to find time to do projects this way?

Yeah I need some major time management adjustment. I'm considering reserving days where I won't make road visits or answer the phones. God forbid I actually stop working at a certain time too. GASP! Maybe take 1 day a week just to do nothing work related?! GASP! Make another day just for my personal business marketing?!! FAINT!

We'll see. I always say I'll do this and then 2 weeks later it's all forgotten. I think I have to do this kind of routine though if I'm to ever hire people. They need routine and not all this crazy mess I'm doing each day.