“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?” — George W. Bush
I was reading through something today and came across this blog describing the job of a Software Engineer. I thought it was really interesting and show what we do. Like the article says most people that know me probably think i fix computers or something like that, when in fact i don’t ever fix computers unless it is at home or if i am doing it for a friend or relative. The blog describes what we do.
Well as some of you may already know, I applied for a new position within the same company. I had the interview and everything went great. The new position would be in downtown St. Louis right next to the new Baseball Stadium.
The verbal offer has come in and im still deciding on if I am going to take it or not. We already have a few people that have decided to go over. The new project that i would be working on is expanding a lot. Within the next year they want to add about 100 people which would double their size. There seems to be a lot of growth opportunities there. Not much opportunities here at my old position.
So I have a huge decision to make. Kinda scary if you ask me.
In other news me and Erin are in the process of looking for a puppy. We are wanting a miniature schnauzer. We want one that is a female and is salt and pepper color. Since Erin is allergic to dogs we decided to go with a dog that doesnt shed. She still has a schnauzer that lives with her grandparents and it doesn’t give her any problems, so we thought we would stick with the same breed. If anyone knows anyone who will have a miniature schnauzer puppy available soon please let us know.
As most of you know, i got married on 07-07-2007. The wedding and reception were really nice and I think everyone had a great time at the reception. Pictures will be coming soon. Going on the honeymoon this Sunday. I can’t wait!
I also bought a webcam recently. It has its own IP address and everything. Right now it is watching my backyard. You can check it out at http://sethcrotchett.dyndns.ws . You will need the username: guest and no password to log into the camera to see the live feed. Check it out!
Some of you already know by now but for those who don’t, I have started a Sports Forum website: www.SportsForumz.com
This site is exactly what you think. It’s a forum site that has categories for all major U.S. sports(NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, PGA, UFC, NCAA, etc…). If you think some need to be added please let me know. I am actually doing the Google Adwords for this one, to drive traffic to my site. Should be nice to see how that works and at what price.
I think the hardest thing for a forum site is to get it started. I need to have people who will post and post often. If someone visits from one of my ads then they most likely wont join because I don’t have that many users yet, so this is somewhat of a problem. The success of a forum site lies within the users and how active the forum is.
I am currently working on getting a Logo done for this site. Hopefully it will freshen up the page some and stick out. Please check out the forum and tell me what you think. Also if you know someone who might be interested in joining please tell them about it.
I finally picked up my new Civic Hybrid on Tuesday. I know i have only owned it for a few days but I thought I would give my review of it so far.
So far things are great with it. On my way home from the dealship which was about 42 miles away I got an average of 49 mpg/miles per gallon. Then on my way to work on Wednesday i got 50 mpg. On my way home from work I decided i would drive like i normally drive which is about 10 -20 mph over the limit. Driving like this got me 46 mpg, which was still pretty great considering i got 12 with my jeep.
The interior is pretty slick. Climate control, plenty of room (even in the backseat). It has a cd player which is an upgrade over my jeep (only had a tape player). Power windows and locks are a great feature that the jeep didn’t have. I love the way the dash is set up. At night it has a few cool looking blue lights, instead of the same old boring lights that most vehicles have.
Most people seem to think that the hybrids don’t have any “get up and go” power. So far i can not complain. Of course it’s not a corvette or a Mustang GT, but i compare it to most other cars. I have not had it floored yet to see where it will max out at but i have been going 80 on the interstate without any issues.
The one thing i don’t really like about the car is the horn. I am not sure if this a Honda issue or what but it just sounds really wimpy. It sounds like the road runner from the cartoons. I guess i just wont use the horn ever. lol.
Thats all i have so far. I am really pleased with the vehicle. I will do more reviews later.
I think i am finally going to get rid of my jeep. I love the jeep but it just burns through the gas. I fill up every other day.
So I decided i would take the plunge and get a hybrid. I am going to go with the Civic Hybrid. The Toyota Prius is supposed to be the best one out there but I really can’t stand the looks of them. The Civic is right up there with the Prius but actually looks like a decent car. It’s not great looking but I am not really worried about the looks as much as the savings in gas $$$.
My jeep gets me 12 miles per gallon. I drive around 120 miles per weekday. The civic gets between 45-51 highway miles per gallon. That would be a huge savings. Plus the government is giving a Federal Tax Credit for buying a hybrid. That equals $2100.
The honda website has a savings calculator. It asks for how much i pay on average per gallon for gas. I put in $3.00 even though it is like $3.25 right now. It also asks how many miles I generally drive per day. I put in 100 miles a day. Then it asks how much highway gas mileage i currently get which is around 12.
Then it calculates your savings. In five years my savings would be $34,889.71 on gas.
It also gives a 10 year savings of $69,779.41. Those are some huge savings. I know this number will vary with the civic MPG, but even half of that would be great. Hopefully come Tuesday I might have my new vehicle.
Today I was reading a sports magazine and came across an article talking about the website www.pbgl.com.
It is described on the website as “the place where major league baseball players show another side of their skills as they battle it out via online video gameplay”. It seemed pretty interesting, but I looked at the list and no Cardinals are in the league, but there a few big name players like Johnny Damon, Julian Tavarez (Boston Red Sox), Luke Hochevar (Kansas City Royals), Dallas McPherson (Los Angeles Angels), Willy Taveras (Colorado Rockies), Corey Patterson (Baltimore Orioles) Rodrigo Lopez (Baltimore Orioles), Seth McClung (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Josh Barfield (Cleveland Indians), Craig Hansen (Boston Red Sox), Matt Holliday (Colorado Rockies), Derek Lowe (Los Angeles Dodgers), Prince Fielder (Milwaukee Brewers), and Mike Pelfrey (New York Mets).
I think to start off they are only playing one game and it’s some racing game from microsoft. I think they plan on adding more games in the future. I think it would make more sense if they played a baseball game since they are all pro baseball players.
I just recently bought www.Crotchett.net. Not sure what I am going to do with it yet but I thought it would be good to have maybe for family pictures and what not. I wanted Crotchett.com but it was taken and I think I contacted the person who owned it and he wasnt interested in selling it.
Maybe I will make it a portal so that all the families can upload videos and pictures. Maybe i will add a blog and forum, but im not sure how many people would write on there or update it. It could just be me. lol.
I am considering getting hosting for www.STLBiz.com. What i would actually do is move the hosting for www.SethCrotchett.com to www.STLBiz.com and then mask SethCrotchett.com to point to that hosting. This way i wont have to pay for multiple hosting accounts. I would then also have to mask www.TriCountyBowl.com to this account since it is already masked to SethCrotchett.com.
This could cause a few problems with my two sites, so SethCrotchett.com could be down for a few days. But I will try to get up as fast as possible.
I am still not sure when I will do this because it is going to require some time. But the plan is to use STLBiz.com and then develop a basic site there to advertise my Web Design skillz so that I can maybe pick up a few side jobs here and there. Anyone need a web page?????
This past weekend I decided that I would get Windows Media Center up and running. The first issue I had was running cable to the room where the computer was. So I went to the basement and figured out what i needed to do. Went to Wal-Mart and bought 50 foot of Cable. Then ran the cable to where the computer was. I then had to drill a hole in the floor to bring the cable up to the main floor. Couldn’t find a drill bit big enough for the cable to fit through so i had to grind out the edges with the drill bit. I finally got it. Next I need to install the TV Tuner in the computer.
Imagine that, a computer that came with Windows Media Center on it, didn’t already have a tv tuner in it. YOu would think it would, but nope. Luckily my work had a few laying around and gave them away for free. Got it installed and then realized I couldn’t find the driver for the tv tuner anywhere. Luckily a guy at work has the driver and I am going to get it today. I also trying to find a remote (we have a few of them around at work too).
