Pictures For Mom

Mom wanted me to put some pictures up of the family. So here ya go mom.

Infant Corbin:



Corbin at Hospital:




Corbin's Hospital Visitors



More of Corbin's Hospital Visitors

Old Job-The Big Move

I only have a few more days in my current role before I am off to start a new position on a new team within my same company. It is only a small physical move; I am moving one floor down. But it is going to be a pretty big move just the same.

I have been in my currnet position for over 6 years now. I know my job pretty darn well. Oh sure, their is TONS more I could learn right where I am. But I am comfortable in my current position, I know what I am doing and I am a "goto" guy for many who respect me. I am really going to miss the people I see and talk to and work with everyday! Jacquie and Jeff, I'll miss you guys. Charles and Kevin F too. I hope Kevin G will still eat lunch with me once in awhile. Kurt and Robert are great co-workers, Chad is super smart! Erica trained me-now she's the new boss. I'll miss Paul's crankyness, Pat's quiet humor and even Darius!

But I remind myself why I am leaving: More money. More direction. Opportunities to learn new things in an exciting group. A new manager who just might promote me. Leadership opportunities. Career development.

I am excited and nervous about the Big Move. Such is life. Change is inevitable. Change is good. It is also hard.

Come see me on the 3rd floor.

-Durk-

Sending Pics from My Phone and Teaching eBay or Why I signed up for Myspace.com (X3), Spaces.msn.com, Photobucket.com, Hotmail.com & Yahoo.com

Even though I have had my own website in one form or another for years now, I took the blogspot.com plunge about a month ago with the purpose of having an online diary. I told myself I'd journal more. I'd write more. I'd be funny more. For all practical purposes I have, pretty darn cool (I AM VERY FUNNY NOW!). The next step is to get a real forum thread going.
Since I first signed up with blogspot.com I have also signed up with:

• Myspace.com - a hip and happening, ever-growing and mostly for-the-young-people. A place where anyone can get a website and have a web-presence. No-name bands, politicians, every student, and really, anyone who is anyone has an account with these guys! It is almost creepy how their web presence has become a standard of sorts. So of course I have 2 or 3 accounts with these guys. We'll get into that later.
• Spaces.msn.com - This is klinda a cross between Blogspot.com and Myspace.com. This is a Blog-type of site, but with a few extras, you can upload pics, have lists of links, etc. I was looking for a place to merely store pics to use with eBay. It did not meet my needs, but since it is Microsoft you can link XBOX stuff, have Windows Media Player play lists, and pretty much help Bill Gates take over the world.
• Hotmail.com - Hey everyone needs to have a free email account-so you don't use your work email! And with hotmail I can use the MSN email program on my pocket pc phone-so I can send pics and such. This was a new account to replace my old account that I can't remember the password of...nice...more about that later.
• Yahoo.com - OK, this I have had. You can use your Yahoo ID to sign in to MSN, but not use it for MSN's Pocket PC Phone email account...Why? Well, anyway, you can't.
• Photobucket.com - This is a gem of a site, I can't believe I didn't know about this before! Basically a FREE site that allows you to VERY EASILY upload pictures from your hard drive and then store them in a photo album and in a place where they can be accessed from many other programs like eBay and Blogspot! It even let's you do a filmstrip-type of display (below) where you can take several pictures and have them scroll by! Or in a "photo stamp" that you see under "links" on the main page of my Blog. SWEET!

All of this form-filing and login & password recording originated from a couple of different goals.

First, I wanted to send pics from my totally awesome Sprint PC phone. The phone comes with Pocket MSN-a program which in addition to allowing you to access MSN from the phone and not a website (you can check news, weather and IM chat), it also allows you to check email-again not from a browser, but from a program! It is fast, simple and works with Pocket Outlook! SUPER SWEET! MSN (Microsoft Network) is just one way that Microsoft is taking over the world; it is their Internet entertainment/web presence. And I discovered that I can login to MSN using my very old Yahoo.com login and password. You haven't lived until you have played online pool with Yahoo.games.com! But what I can't do is login to MSN mail with my Yahoo login/pass. For that you have to have a Hotmail account. WHICH I DO! So I use it...password does not work...No problem, just have the password sent to...email address, well that isn’t gonna work now is it? I CAN'T ACCESS EMAIL BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW MY OWN PASSWORD. OK, so I can answer my secret question. What is my favorite pet's name? WHAT? Well I don't know, Mr. Pibb was my first pet, lower case upper case periods and spaces...no I must not have used that...Well then there is Roman Greco...Roman or Greco? No, well I just got Dash, the mini wiener dog...nope that does not work either. Now my password isn’t just forgotten it is fried, as in too many attempts. So now what? Well after click after click after click and after getting an email response that I can have my password sent to an alternate address THAT I HAD TO SET UP TO BEGIN WITH, and finally getting NOWHERE I throw my hands up in the air and just sign up for a new account! Heck it's free, takes just a couple of minutes. FINE. But I really liked my old name and it matches my XBOX360 screen name...so NOW what? All well.

Second, I wanted to store pictures online so I could access them via HTML from somewhere else. I did not merely want a photo album and I didn't want to use a web server, real honest-to-goodness web space that I am paying for (which is what I do for MY auctions)! I have been showing a friend how to get all setup on eBay. One of the very cool things about eBay is that you can use HTML to create auctions. The biggest advantage: You can show folks more pics without having to pay extra. Disadvantage: You have to "store" your pics somewhere else; you have to have your pics somewhere where the HTML can pull them from-NOT ON EBAY! The answer came in a passing conversation about Myspace and Ebay: Photobucket.com Photobucket is a free site where you can sign up in seconds and start uploading pics immediately and VERY EASILY! There is a form with a browse button, you find the pic on your local drive, you can give it a title, and whalla! STORED PICS! Not too sure where they actually are within this Photobucket website? No prob! Click a couple of buttons and THEY PROVIDE THE URL FOR YOU! Want to get all fancy? Click a couple more buttons and it gives you the code and url in a couple of different formats (Flash or DHTML) to post in a filmstrip format or a "stamp" format (see above bullet for examples). Still not good enough? IT ALSO DOES VIDEO! SA-WEET! All of that is free, there is other cool stuff that you can pay for, but the freebies are pretty powerful stuff. I had been trying to show my HTML-illiterate friend how to upload pics from his PC to his cable companies web space...not real easy. Photobucket takes away ALL of the headaches!

I know, I know, there are a whole lot of cool websites out there! I know this! I used to collect all kinds of addresses. And now it seems I have started up again! I welcome YOUR favorites!

-Durk-