Twisted Sideways

I’m thinking about the painting the outside of my house a new color including the brick.  I recently got my roof replaced and pick a somewhat neutral color for the shingles.  I had to redo a lot of the trim around the house because it was either rotted out or wasn’t in good shape.  I also had to remove the gutters since that siding had to come down.  In the process I have been thinking about painting the brick on my house.  Any thoughts about this?  Suggestions?

Most of the comments that I have read about people that have done it, love the look afterswards.  Everyone that hasn’t done it is saying no.  Any feedback?

I have lived in Texas my entire life and it’s hard to believe, but I have NEVER flown on Southwest Airlines. A few friends and I are taking a trip to the Pacific Northwest this coming July.  I am meeting this group of friends in California and then driving up through the Northwest and up into Vancouver.  As I have attempted to find flights for this trip, I have been amazed at the number of flights that are already completely filled and those that only have a few seats left.  To top it all off, the prices on these flights are already trough the roof.

In my usual attempt to find flights, I hit up Orbitz.  But Orbitz doesn’t search airlines like Southwest Airlines so I headed over to their site to see if they had flights going to both my arrival and departure cities.  (Since we’re driving once on the west coast, I’m arriving and departing from different cities.)  I was able to get round trip airfare for a little under $350.  I couldn’t believe it.  I’m excited about the upcoming trip to say the least.  I’ll have to fill you in on my experience with Southwest after the trip in July.

It’s still hard to be believe though that this will be my first flight EVERY on Southwest Airlines.

If you have never heard of Skype, it’s time to get with the program.  I feel like I have been one of the last few people to get on board with Skype.  Many of my friends that live overseas have been using it for years and a lot of people have said nothing but great things about it.

Only recently did I being to pursue a little more information into Skype.  For about $30 a year, you can get unlimited (Read: 10,000 minutes a month) calls to the US and Canada.  For an additional $30 a year, you can get a local number so that friends and family can reach you through a normal land line or cell phone, without having to have Skype. It of course makes free calls to other Skype users.  And it includes free voice mail when you purchase a year’s worth of calling.

Since I was with Time Warner and purchased their bundled package of digital cable, digital phone, and internet, it took me about two years to really look at my bill one day and realize that I was paying an unbelievable $49.95 a month before taxes and fees for my local phone service.  I couldn’t believe the savings between the two. In just two months, I would already be saving.  Through out the entire year, I would have spent $600 on my phone service.  I now spend $60 a year.

To add to all of this, I also purchased a Skype phone.  The GE – SKYPE – Dect 6.0 Cordless phone. The phone allows me to talk on the phone while not being at my computer.  It’s a cordless unit just like a regular phone but it syncs to your contact list on your Skype account. And because it links to your Skype account you have an electronic call log of who you called, who called you and how long you talked on the phone. It even shows you when you have missed calls and you can check your voice mail from your computer or the phone itself. The phone does have to be plugged into the internet to work but does also support land lines in the event you move or find that you don’t have internet service in your area.  It’s a two-in-one phone.  The service however, does not allow calls to 911.  I don’t think I have ever called 911 from my house and I still use a cell phone while out of the house.  So that wasn’t really an issue.

So far though, I love the purchase.  It’s a move I should have made a very long time ago.

Am I alone in my thinking about Valentine’s day?  Am I the only one that can’t stand it?  And I don’t think I am bitter because I am single this year.  It’s just not my favorite “holiday” or what ever it is that you want to call it.  Long lines and no open reservation spots, expensive and extremely marked up prices on flowers that are no where close to that price any other time of the year, the fact that you have to make reservations at resturants that NEVER take reservations any other time of year, those nasty heart shaped antiacids and all the other commerical crap that comes with it, just becomes to much for me.

Why do we have to take this one time, one day of the year to tell (or show) our significant other that we care? I don’t know… Am I alone in this?

I have finally gotten around to posting photos from the house remodel work that I have been doing. If you can’t tell, I bought a major fixer-upper. I finally broke down and paid for a subscription to flickr so that I could upload more photos and organize photosets.  I have avoided it for so long since I pay for server space for the blog.  But the features and other fun stuff that flikr provides, just can’t be beat.  So here are some photos of the remodel work I have been doing over the past two years and months.

The kitchen was a big undertaking.  After a few coats of paint, replacing the light fixtures and painting the cabinets and back-splash, I really like the way everything turned out.

Here is my kitchen with a before and after.

The front yard had a huge deck the previous owner decided to build. I couldn’t believe it was something that they put in – and it wasn’t done well. The flower beds were also in pretty bad shape. After a lot of sweat taking the deck down and redoing the the flower beds, it has all turned out nicely. I also fertilized and watered the front yard to get the grass in better shape.  There was no grass under the deck so I had to bring in about 50 squares of sod to help that area get started. Here are the before, during and afters.

My backyard has a pool and little room for much else. When I purchased the home, there was little to no landscaping in the back yard. The entire yard was full of weeds and a deck that needed some tender love and care. I decided that I needed a place to plant some plants and add some additional color to the back yard. Since most pools have a concrete border around the pool, much of the back border isn’t really used for walking or standing and hanging out on. So I decided to put in a rock retaining wall and back fill it with soil. I cleaned up the deck, power washed it, tore down the privacy fence that was sitting on top of the deck rather than at the fence line, and added a guard rail to the deck to help open up the back yard.  I then installed deck lights in the poles around the guard rail to create a nice area to be used at night for get togethers. I also installed landscape lighting in the new flower bed at the ends and a spotlight in the middle pointing up through the Mountain Laural.

So needless to say, I have been a little busy around the house. I still have a long way to go with a lot of other projects. Some of them I have already completed, but just need to gather and post those pictures. More to come soon.

All the pictures from these projects can be found here.

It’s been a few weeks since I have had DirecTv installed here at the house, and I can’t complain. The signal has been amazing, the HD channels have been the best that I have seen and they keep adding more and more.

I love the fact that I can schedule recordings from the web and then have them either waiting for me when I get home and/or not have to worry about catching them when I get home.

The customer service that I have received when calling has also been amazing.  Other than some issues when I called before ordering the service, I haven’t had any issues to date.  They even installed my dish a few days earlier than when I had originally scheduled it.  I found some open spots later, changed the install time and date and they were here.  The installer was extremely friendly and helpful and was able to answer all of my questions.

As I have stated before, I am not a fan of Time Warner cable and this has been the best decision that I have made in awhile.  Now if I could just get internet from someone else besides them….

My friend and former colleague Tim Walker recently posted an article entitled Stop! which talks about how busy we are, how much we try and do, how overwhelmed we make ourselves and the implications that come with that.

His post really got me thinking about what all I do to stay busy!  What kind of things do I fill my day with in order to stay busy, to feel successful and feel some since of self-worth?  Tim talks about doing things to the point of either not being successful or only semi-successful and that just sent my mind running.

I consider myself to be successful, there is no question about that.  Granted, I haven’t won any kind of public reward, scored an Oscar, been featured in the news, or even had a news article written about me.  But I do believe that the changes I have been able to make in people’s lives make everything worth it.  If that involves volunteering my time, working to make something better and more efficient at work, helping someone with a website or design, being an ear just to listen, or even something as simple as giving advice.

I know that Tim’s article was not about reflecting on your self-worth nor do I think it suggested that we should all sit back and have self-pity or try and justify the things that we do.  But I believe his article made me STOP and think about where I spend my “free” time and even what I spend my “work” or “normal” time focusing on. I agree with a lot of what Tim talks about in many of his posts.  Tim has written a few articles about not multitasking, closing your email, and even being mindful of your time.  He has some great ideas but frankly I have taken little time to head any of his advice.

I’m thinking I just might try a few of these ideas and see how life changes for me.

What kind of things are you doing that make you busy that you might be able to change?

For those of you that have been following me on Twitter, I have recently been asking around about customer experiences with DirectTV.  I have been unhappy for a while with Time Warner.  Not only because of their horrible customer service and long wait times, but also because most of their HD channels are hit or miss.  And most of the time they are a miss.

I can never get CNN or FOX News in HD and many of the stations cut out 50% of the time.  And Time Warner’s rates are nothing to really write home about.  So I finally made the decision to switch to DirectTV.  After looking through much of their online FAQs and watching some of their videos about what features they offer their customers, I placed an order online.  It’s being set up this coming Saturday afternoon.  I’m pretty excited about the ability to control the DVR from work should I forget to record a show or even want to have a movie downloaded to the DVR so that I can watch it when I get home that evening.

I have also discovered quite a bit of information that many of the sales people don’t know about the DVR boxes.  I called DirectTV a few times to ask questions about the DVR boxes and I got many contradictary answers between sales people.  After digging around and finding a few videos and documentation, I was able to get the answers I needed in order to make sure that I would be capable of doing everything I wanted once the system was installed.

I’ll keep you posted about how everything turns out after the install.

I recently attended a Social Media Breakfast here in Austin.  Tim Walker was the speaker that morning and had a lot of history and insight to share.  It was great to connect with a lot of old friends and even meet some news ones.

During the Q&A with Tim, there was lady that asked a question about content.  In her question she made mention that the internet, blogs, and other forms of posting content has become a bit overwhelming.  She added that even though she uses an RSS reader, she finds that so many people post simply to post, rather than having good content that becomes relevant to readers.  She wasn’t reffering to the family blogs, the blogs where people simply post pictures and updates for their friends and family and not so much for the general media.

Her comment has made me think a lot about why I post.  Why I feel the need to write or post material just to post.  I clearly don’t post for family and friends as I rarely give updates about what is going on in my life.  But rather, make posts about what I am thinking or feel.  And I have had thoughts at times that I “need” to post because I haven’t in awhile.  I know that content is king as they say and that is what brings people to a blog.  But I’m not going to post, just to post anymore.  I am done with that pressure.

So here to posting when I want and what I want.

The other night I was walking through HEB picking up a few things for dinner and I thought I heard sleigh bells.  Sure enough, Christmas music was pumping through the speakers in the store.  November 10th.

I think I might post something about this every year, but I feel like stores and everyone in the retail market, push the Christmas season marketing and decorations sooner and sooner.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I just have a hard time walking around in November hearing “Let it Snow” and “Jingle Bells” non-stop in every store.

I also understand that given the current condition of the economy, retailers are pulling out all the stops simply trying to generate revenue in an already low spending consumer market.  Even Macy’s here in The Domain have set up their huge Christmas tree.  Invitations have already gone out about the lighting ceremony and big musical production to follow.  Even Jordan Sparks will be here.  (Which I admit was a little surprised to see)

All in all though, I just always feel like the Christmas season is pushed so soon with no regard to Thanksgiving.  Has it always been this way or am I just more aware now that I am an adult?

How soon is too soon for you?