Ok.. I took a moment and republished some of the original content from Carolinaregion.com today. I thought it worth sharing, IF (and only if) you have about 20 minutes and absolutely NOTHING to do with your life at the moment.
The new pages are:
Enjoy!
Well, thanks to whomever you were from Raleigh, NC. You were my 20,000th blog visitor on Scooby Central. Not too bad for my little hole here on the web. It's been almost exactly three years since I started this thing. God, that seems like so long when you actually say it, but it's not seemed that long from my view.
Lol. I just checked.. the other blog (me-tomorphosis) just crossed 42! (You'd have to know me to get the significance of that) Actually, carolinaregion.com has crossed the million visitors mark about three times over throughout the years, but each time I change the site, I wipe the count and start again.
Ok.. back to work. I just wanted to commemorate the moment!
(Yeah, like I could really say that with my stutter, right?)
Well, I know it's been almost a month since I wrote on here and I'm usually pretty good about keeping up to date. It's just been busy, same as I'm sure it has been for everyone else this holiday season. As you can see, I've done a little revamping to both blogs (Scooby Central & Me-Tomorphasis both share blog content back and forth.) I've streamlined Scooby central a little to make it more friendly for those with slower connections (ie, anyone overseas).
Me-Tomomorphosis has been completely rebuilt using Wordpress, hosted on my own server, so I'm learning all kinds of new things I can do with that.. kudos to me!
Let me see if I can give you the highlight of the recent adventures:
I had to go to Federal Court again in Washington DC (not for anything related to ME I assure you) so I decided to take Mom on a small vacation. Since the government (ie. you taxpayers) was footing the bill for the posh hotel, we got to take in some of the sights. Mom took my brother and I go DC when I was about 6 or 7 years old and she hasn't been back since, so it was kind of cool that for her second trip I got to take her instead!
Of course, while we were there we had to take the typical tourist pictures for her scrapbook; Vietnam War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Natural History Museum, etc.
Since I might not get to take her to Libya any time soon, I was really glad to be able to take her to an Authentic Arabic restaurant and let her enjoy dinner the way we got used to having it when I was in Libya. She had a blast. We ate dinner at the Merakesh in downtown DC.
Well, I could write about each little thing for hours, but I'll synopsize a little for the sake of Brevity.
April got her much deserved vacation from work the week before Christmas, which is why you haven't heard from either of us much during the last three weeks.
She really wanted to see Biltmore Estate, so I took her out there for a two day tour of the grounds. It's really an amazing place. If you can imagine a house that 175 THOUSAND square feet, that originally sat on 125,000 acres of personally owned property.
The dining room is 70 feet tall in the middle and has three fireplaces to keep it warm. Huge place. Beautiful architecture though.
And of course, we got a picture taken there at the house. Since the photos are $32 a pop, I'm definitely sharing it around! Here ya go!
( I want a .05 cent donation from each of you viewers! Ha!)
And of course, post-vacation we rolled right over into Christmas. Christmas was pretty awesome this year. Cool gifts aside, it was really great that we got to see Everybody (almost) without having to drive all over God's creation! We went to Aunt Faye's annual gathering to eat dinner on Sunday before Christmas, then to April's folks on that same day, and again to her parent's on Christmas Eve. Then, to top it off, my family came up to have Christmas at our house this year,which was really really cool! I'm not sharing all those photos because it would take forever, but you can see them on my Google Pictures, or on my Facebook Christmas Photos account, either way is ok if you want to look them up.
On other fronts, life is plodding along. The Post-Christmas sloth is a battle I have to fight continuously this week. Getting back into gear to hunt new customers and new job leads is grueling after spending 10 days or so happily hanging out and relaxing here at the house. I had a good start today though. I got a few new good leads with an electrical contractor in Greenville that wants to sub-contract me out for Triple-play and voice/data networking.
News on the international travel desk is null at this point I'm afraid. I've had a few interested emails, but nothing solid that will take the Dynamic Duo back overseas anytime soon. I'm really looking hard into Dubai, Libya, Egypt, Kazhakstan, Australia, and the UK... all areas I'd love to work and experience. We'll see. Keep your fingers crossed and wish me the best of luck.
I'll post more soon!
Can you say depreciation? December 13th, 2007. And to add insult to injury, I took this photo less than 1 mile from where my LAST vehicle crossed 100,000 miles!
Well, I'll tell you. Most of you know already so it's not like it's extremely new news. It's looking like Applied Technologies is running low on funds again this year's end. To that end, the ability of the company to continue to pay me and Tim is pretty much expected to cease. We are getting one month's severance pay (according to the email I received today) so I can't complain about my treatment.
What's going to happen?
Well, there are a couple of possibilities. The overall goal here is to get my company off the ground; I should stipulate that by "my", I am referring to the partnership between myself and Tim in 3rd and Wayne. We have both wanted this for a long time and this might be a good time for it to happen. I know Tim was getting burned out on the stresses of the projects and the travel, so a change might be what's needed.
How does this affect us being in Libya?
Well, unfortunately I don't have plans to return in the immediate future. I WANT to return.. hell, I have a LOT of stuff over there I'd like to get back! But, it's going to take me some time to get my own projects in that country and in other countries like it, so unless a financial investor falls out of the sky in the upcoming months, my plans for making millions overseas will have to develop more slowly. lol.
I'm not sure exactly how this will affect me here in the states. I'm looking for both work AND contracts at the same time. Basically I'm looking for ways to employ ME personally so I can invest more money in the company's pockets and I'm also looking for contracts and clients for the company to work with, with the same result in mind. We'll have to see how it goes. Tim is a great engineer and I'm a great sales person so we're going to be putting our feet to the bricks and drumming up business anywhere we can. Our combined reputations and references are usually enough to get us in the door IF we can locate the customers who are in need of services. It's not hard to DO good work, at least not if your work ethic is there... what's hard is getting yourself in front of people who need your services WHEN they need your services. Once they try us, they never go anywhere else... it's just that "once they try us" part that we're going to have to work up.
So, if any of you know any people who need any of the following, by all means let me or Tim know.
(Yes, for once I'm actually ASKING people to call me for computer support!) You'd know that the one time I actually want and NEED computer work, it's scarce. When I don't need it people are beating down my door to get me to fix their PC's or home networks.
In the end, it'll all work out. We do some of the best work you can ask for and we never lose customers so we're doing SOMETHING right, ya know?
The REAL kick in the head:
Ha.. well I DID get one thing to smile about today. I got a job offer within 36 hours of posting my resume.. for 1.5 times my current salary to start plus full benefits and paid travel... Good to know I can always fall back in service to "the man" if I have to!
Laters
Yeah.. about time. It's not much, but it's something. You might (or not) find this useful. I know this would have saved me about $600.00 on this year's taxes if it had happened in 07 instead of 2008.
Increase in Standard Mileage Rates
The Internal Revenue Service recently issued the 2008 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2008, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (including vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be: 50.5 cents per mile for business miles driven; 19 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes; and 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations.
The new rate for business miles compares to a rate of 48.5 cents per mile and the new rate for medical and moving purposes compares to 20 cents for 2007. The rate for miles driven in service of charitable organizations has remained the same. The standard mileage rate for business, including medical and moving purposes, is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile. Runzheimer International, an independent contractor, conducted this study for the IRS.
The mileage rate for charitable miles is set by law. A taxpayer may not use the business standard mileage rate for a vehicle after using any depreciation method under the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS), after claiming a Section 179 deduction for that vehicle, for any vehicle used for hire or for more than four vehicles used simultaneously.
Source: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom
See: IRS Announces 2008 Standard Mileage Rates article
As you may notice, this post contains my resume, slightly altered to conform to the restrictions of the blogging community. The purpose in this posting is to publicize the content for the benefit of anyone who may be using the Google search engine to look for candidates for positions in which I may be interested. If you would like a professional copy of this resume, it can be downloaded below.
I am currently seeking the following opportunities:
Download My Resume in PDF Format
(To Save the document to your computer, right click the link and choose "Save Target As")
Without further ado...
I have spent the last two years working in the United States and Libya, North Africa as the Project Manager and Senior Network Engineer for a US-based company. I assembled, trained, and led a team of network, server, and programming engineers on two separate international projects and was responsible for running the company while deployed in-country. My duties involve being the chief network engineer, managing international logistics, interfacing with multi-lingual clientele, and making sure the projects flowed smoothly and remained both on-time and under-budget. Deployment was from one to four months continuous before returning home to the US for preparation of the next phase.
As the company was launching with few initial staff, it was my job to perform the following duties as well as training eventual replacements for the duties below:
I am now looking to progress into a senior management or field position within the IT sector. I am therefore interested to find a new and suitably challenging role within a market-leading organization.
Achievements:
Responsibilities:
Achievements:
Responsibilities:
Achievements:
Responsibilities:
East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
Computer Science Degree
Attended 2 years and left to take job offer in the field for which I was studying.
Professional or personal references available upon request.
I have been working with computer hardware, software, graphic design, and web programming since 1996. I have a very good talent for picking up new software very quickly and adapting it to the need required by a particular project. I have administrator/expert level experience with most all current document and operating system platforms. A full list of skill-sets can be provided if required.
Computer Software / Internet Related Specialties
I have advanced / expert level experience with the following programs and concepts:
Networking:
Software:
