Michael J Gorman

I've started a Red Wings section of the blog where I will undoubtedly be a very bias sports fan. If you don't like that... then let me know and I'll change so i can appease all the masses. Wait no, what I meant to say was you can go read some "non-bias" (See what I did with the parenthesis?) Hockey blogs on some other web sites. 

Let's Go Wings! 

For the last year my primary computer has been my Macbook Pro I purchased last July. I had before that build an High end AMD X2 system that just sat for most of the last year. I also recently purchased a ASUS EEEPC 1005HA netbook. This running Windows7 and Linux has pretty much permanently silenced my Desktop PC. That was untill I decided to turn it into a MythTV Backend (And Frontend).

I have purchased a Hauppauge PVR-150 MCE off Ebay (Hauppauge no longer ships any analog cards like this due to pressure from FCC). It should be arriving Friday. I had wanted to do this all a few years ago, but the limitation was I am using DirecTV and you had to use IR Blasters and such to control the DirectTV. This has sinced changed. The DirecTV box I have(D11) includes a USB port on the back which can be used to send control signals to the the box. All that is needed is a USB->DB9 serial, a Nullmodem db9, and another DB9 cable to connect to the PC. There are a few different scripts depending on your DirectTV box (all this info can be found at http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Controlling_DirectTV_D11_via_USB ).

I am currently awaiting the delivery of my cables and capture card, once they arrive will update and continue this post with the MythTV setup and how it all works.

I got a bunch of the Hockey gear I ordered last week in the mail a few days ago. My plan as of now is to start the "Adult Hockey Introduction Program" at Icetown, the ice rink I go to in Riverside.  It will be a 10 week course that goes through all the on ice stuff for people like me who are starting a bit late. The course starts on september 14th. It is like 200 dollars and also includes free entry to the public sessions during the week. Icetown also has an hour of "puck play" every night where I can go and practice in full gear and such. The public sessions don't allow any sticks/pucks so that is just for working on my skating.

I think 200 dollars is a pretty good value for 10 weeks of Hockey + public sessions. After I do that I plan to talk to some guys at work who play there so I can get on a regular team. I have delusions of grandure that even though I'm about to be 22 years old and just starting that I could somehow end up playing as a profession. I know it isn't realistic buy a guy can dream!

I was kicked out of my room all this week so that it could be painted. I just moved all my stuff back in today. It feels good to be back in my own room, it is awkward sleeping somewhere you are not used to. Plus that room was smaller so all my stuck was packed in like a game of tetris. I moved all my stuff back in inbetween jamming on my bass (Some Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Black Light Burns songs) and catching up on Mad Men. I'm a few episodes into Season 2. I LOVE the show. It has prompted me to consider buying a Fedora. I think I could pull it off. 

I am still alive! Going on to 5 months of working the new job I thought I should give an update for anyone who might read this. I'm assuming thats like tops 2 people, but enjoy it you 2. 

So almost 5 months of working 40+hours a week (lots of plus in there) I still really like the job. ESRI is a great company, and while not everyone on our team are the easiest people to deal with I still think right now it is the best place for me to develop my career. I've been learning a ton and absorbing as many skills as I can.

In July we had the user conference for the company to interface with all the users and show off software and such. Our team was down there to setup the network and phones for the entire thing. It was held in San Diego, at the Convention Center, the Hilton and the Marriot. It was not an overly complex setup so it there wasn't a huge technical challenge. The Challenge is the sheer size of the event. Everything went off without a hitch. I feel I did a really good job of getting in there and doing everything I could, "Above the call of duty", as it were. 

My manager Terry is a good guy, he is however a hand off manager for the most part. This can be positive because you don't have someone over your shoulder all day, but at the same time it can leave you with the yearn for some more structure, if not for yourself, to motivate some other members on the team. I'm just starting to get comfortable with some members of the team. They're all good guys, but you have to learn the specific ways to deal with each of them. 

I'm making pretty good money, especially for someone my age right out of college. I'm always looking higher though. If i made more I could comfortably move out and buy my new car. I think I still could now. It would be nice if i had a dependable friend to rent a room of whatever I buy to help relieve some of that pressure. Not to say I don't have dependable friends, but well, my friends are my friends...

I have been spending a lot of money lately. I get kind of depressed and buying something helps. I bought a netbook(ASUS EeePC 1005ha), A Bass(Dean Edge 10a 4 string), lots of Hockey Gear and of course tickets to pretty much every concert I have even the slightest desire to go to. I need to stop, but then I feel kinda empty about working and not seeing any payoff from it. Its hard to balance. I'm still saving more than I'm spending so I figure I'm not doing too bad. 

Just a few days ago I realized I only really have 1 close friend from High school and back still in my life, and even that is a relationship in a downward spiral. I think this is something that has to happen to everyone though. A time comes when you can put your insecurities behind you and cut ties that you may have felt you needed before. If everyone isn't pulling their own weight its not fair that you should have to pick up the slack. Sometimes it is actions from those people. You can know someone for 10 years and suddenly something changes. You don't know them at all. Did you ever? 

My dad had a tumor in his colon recently. It was pre-cancerous, so they got it early and he is fine now. Another good friend's mom(for all intensive purposes) is fighting cancer. I just found out another friend's dad is really sick. What is going on in the world? In the last case it couldn't have happen to a nicer family, and it is really disappointing that is has. 

I just watched Lost in Translation and I'm listening to Our Lady Peace's new Cd, Burn Burn Burn, so in writing this I think my emotions and thoughts were sort of skewed in one direction. Anyway, I just wanted to post something so my site didn't look pathetic with the last update being in April. I'll try and come up with some regular content to post... if anyone is reading it and wants me to. Comment, let me know. 

Starting the new job at ESRI in Redlands monday. I'm very excited to get out there in the world. I will hopefully be very busy so this page may go dark for a bit with no updates. I'll try and check in and let people know I am alive and how everything is going. 

I just decided to pipe a twitter feed into my navbar at the right of this post, so now even if i don't update the page with much there will be my tweets.