Staying busy, getting older soon
Yeah, I'm probably yet again doing MORE than any sane person should. Still doing kung fu, although I think I might need to take a bigger break. And soon. I'm looking into a few properties for investment purposes, and my internet marketing has taken a jump up. I have some motivation to succeed, so we'll have to see how it turns out.

Well, there's that, plus the fact that a little piece of software was just released. You might have heard of it... Halo 3? Yeah, I (being the true nerd) went to the midnight release. Seeing some of the other individuals there just made me smile. I got some free pizza as well as finished off a level at expert difficulty in the in-store copy of Guitar Hero 2. That, and I did play a little after getting home. I'm feeling it a bit now, and my girlfriend wasn't particularly happy about that (she said to show some restraint and hold back - I'm apparently not THAT strong). But yes - the game is glorious. It's gorgeous, and it sounds awesome, and it's FUN. And I shall play it again tonight.

I'm getting older soon. Sunday, to be exact. And I have no idea what I'll be doing. Perhaps I should just relax and watch a cinematic adventure. Or perhaps play some Halo 3. Or even some guitar (that's kind of been lost on the wayside with all my other activities). I might just lose some more hair and feel old. Fun times!

Okay, so I'm still at work, so I should go. I'll go ahead and post the random link here for now. This is another blog I found out about from CNN. It's both horrific and entertaining, something all blogs should aspire towards. Check it out!
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 3:30 PM | 0 comments

 
Blog birthday tomorrow
How odd. My blog will be four years old tomorrow. That's pretty old for a blog. And it's been fairly quiet for the past year. But this past year has not been so quiet for ME. I think those things are related, somehow.

So lately I've been thinking a lot about life, and how I'm getting older, and jobs, and women, and family, and so forth. What do I want to do with life? That's one I'm still working on. Apparently all my questioning is not something that is completely unusual. I don't normally jump into astrology analysis, but a friend forwarded this to me and it struck me as oddly correlating. (For those that scoff at new age web sites, here's the wikipedia entry.) It matches a LOT of what I've been dealing with lately.

So what's that mean? I've been a big computer nerd for basically my whole life. That may change in the next year or two, apparently. I might end up being a real estate guru. Who knows. After that I might open up my own bank. Or become a movie director (something I've wanted to try for a long time). But sitting in a cubicle, typing in code for a program that's most likely not going to be used for an extremely long period of time, while worrying about the company I'm working for being bought out and a large percentage of employees being laid off - that's not something that I want to do for the rest of my life. And that I KNOW. So the question is now... what DO I want to do? What's rewarding? What's fun? What's both, and can still allow me to pay my bills? Can I do more than one thing at once? Could I be a real estate investor and a rock star AND a kung fu teacher? With some movies on the side? (Clean movies. I know you were thinking it would be pr0n. You pervert.)

And then what about family? When am I going to get married? That, I have no idea on. What about kids? I know I want one (preferably two), but when's a good time? These are all things I've been thinking about, aside from my learning for marketing and real estate.

Speaking of, I went to a workshop for real estate rehab this last weekend with Nicole (my girlfriend - she's always been interested in rehab work for properties). The guy giving the workshop is known as "Mr. Rehab" - Pete Youngs. He's a good guy, and he gave a ton of very good tips. I'm eager to try some of his techniques on a property, so I'm looking for some that need rehab work. The kind that people look at and say, "Ugh!" I really am thinking this is something I'd enjoy. It's manual labor with a very visible product. It's work with results you can see. That, and the money's okay, too. If you happen to know anyone selling a property that needs work, or if you just see a property that looks like it's abandoned (with much better looking houses around it), let me know. (Hint, hint - I pay a referral fee for any properties I close on, and it's a fairly sizeable chunk of cash. Ask me if you're interested and/or curious.) I think it'd be a rewarding job, and something that would help improve things for everyone. That, and I could get some sun instead of being stuck in front of a computer all day.

Anyway, my life will go forward somehow. I'll just have to see how it moves forward as I get there.

Time for random linkage! I'm still hooked on YouTube. It's the source of many of my musings. It can even be educational. If you smoke (or know someone who does), you may want to check this out.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 4:08 PM | 0 comments

 
Yes, the blog LIVES
Yeah, it's been a long time. A very long time. I've been overly busy, and just have (to be honest) forgotten I even had a blog. But I've put enough time into it in the past, and it contains memories, as well as being cathartic when I put entries into it, somehow.

I've been thinking a lot lately about life in general. My birthday's coming up, I'm not getting any younger, and I'm thinking more and more about what I should do with my life. Both what I want to do, and what I should do. In the past, I approached various endeavors with commitment, to make sure I learned the things I wanted to. Looking at myself today, I can see the results of these.

In review:

• I've completed two degrees in computer science, stemming from my childhood interest in programming (started at 8 years of age).


• I've learned how to play guitar. How good I am is debatable, but I am a fan of my 12-string Seagull, as well as playing on my electric guitars (nothing quite like the fun of ripping through a song on an American Strat).


• I've learned kung fu. I'm now a black belt and one of the senior students at my school, and I've heard from many people they very much like my teaching style, which is rewarding to hear. That, and it's fun, plus it keeps me in shape, which allows me to keep my horrid vice of pizza and Pepsi.


• I've achieved a few of my life goals in the past few years (actually, past year or so), including buying the car of my dreams new and driving it off the showroom floor, as well as purchasing a decent house.

I'm still very goal-oriented, and at the moment my latest interests have been in other occupations. Mainly that of internet marketing and real estate investing. I've established a decent income with internet marketing (helped buy my car), and I definitely have the knowledge necessary to move forward with it. I've learned a lot with real estate and am in the process of pursuing some property acquisitions to learn first-hand more about it. I know enough now to get started fully, and expect it to happen soon. That, and I've recently been peeking into the wide world of poker, which I'm moderately decent at (consistently in the top three of 8-10 player tables in my weekly game with the guys). There are people who make six figures a year from it, so it might be a fun hobby to bring some income in on an occasional basis.

The bad things about all of this is that it keeps me very occupied, moreso than most people I know (or even have heard of). My girlfriend is not a fan of that detail, which is understandable. I'm coming up on my birthday, and while I'm still young, the age that I'm reaching is large enough that it's making me start to think about what I should be doing in life. I want to have an impact on the world in a good way, and working in IT for the rest of my life is not going to do it. So I need to figure out what I want to do that combines nicely with what I SHOULD do. It's been on my mind a lot lately, and I'm still wandering a bit through possibilities.

Anyway, perhaps a stream-of-consciousness style of discussion with you here may help me delineate my potential life paths enough to make a confident decision. Or maybe it will help me discover new ideas. For now, I'm doing more things than really should being doing, and at ONCE, so I should start looking on what I should focus more fully on, then drop the attention so much on everything equally, in my multi-faceted lifestyle.

A very introspective blog entry for you today. How about you? Have you considered your own life? Where it's going? What you'll be doing with it? These are things for you to think about. I won't know about yours, but mine are here. I know some might consider concern over publicly discussing one's life so openly, but the reality is that in our fully connected world today, any of these details that anyone wanted to know they could find fairly easily, if they looked. So... eh. It's okay.

And yes, I haven't forgotten a random link. I'll actually post a link to another blog that I found in my revamped poker interest (I started playing originally when I was under 10 years old). He waxes philosophical about many of the same things I've talked about here today, and it's inspired me to continue my own blog, as well as think more deeply on my life's direction. You can look for yourself if you're curious (from the first month of entries, oldest posts at the bottom, newest on top).
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 12:42 PM | 2 comments