WELCOME!

August 1, 2002 - Nope... the road trip writeup isn't finished yet

For those of you that have been fortunate enough to not know how turbulent things have been lately, lets just say that the website hasn't exactly been tops on my priority list.

July 2002 has to be one of the worst fuckin' months I can recall. There hasn't been one single week gone by in this month that hasn't been tainted by some form of tragedy.

Let's recap:

Thursday, July 4th, 2002: The inevitable. A 2 month old relationship trying to span a 6 month absence. I should have been a fool to think it would work. Funny how you can overlook rational thought when you're... Well, let's just say that I hoped it would turn out differently. I was actually pretty upset about that... little did I know what was lying around the corner.

Saturday, July 6th, 2002: As I'm driving home from my much needed escape to Ft. Wayne, two of my very close friends are living their final moments at Picacho Peak State Park in Arizona. Here I am driving along a bare stretch of highway thinking I've got it bad... How fuckin' stupid can I be? Of course at this point, I still had no clue. I'm immersed in my own problems still.

Monday, July 8th, 2002: The phone call you spend your life wishing you never get. Laura's sister, Suzie, called me first thing Monday morning to break the news to me. I don't remember much else of that day. I went through the motions and managed to get through another day, but my mind was elsewhere. You never expect to hear about the death of a friend. I'm 25 fuckin' years old. I'm not supposed to be burying my friends yet. I was just there to see them not more than a month before! It still doesn't seem real. Life took on a very surreal and distant feel from that point on.

Tuesday, July 9th, 2002: Work, or lack thereof. My hours got cut at work because the shop was slow. As if enough shit hasn't been raining down this month, I have to deal with insufficient funds to pay my bills now.

Sunday, July 14th, 2002: The wake. I love to see old friends that I haven't seen in years... just not under these circumstances. It was good to see Keith again. It had been a long time, but next time I'd like to visit just for the hell of it, and not becuase some bizarre tragedy has brought us together. There were lots of faces there that I should have been able to put names to, but my mind wasn't exactly focused. This was the day that it all became real. You can be told a thousand times, but until you actually see for yourself it never seems real.

Monday, July 15th, 2002: The funeral. More old faces. Fred showed up! I was beginning to worry that he wouldn't make it. I also ran into my old high school girlfriend, Stacy, there. It was a strange day. My recollection of the day is scattered. Its like a collection of still photographs floating through my mind. Like I was watching a random slideshow of someone else's life. It already feels like it was years ago. Strange how your mind can play tricks on you like that. I was asked to be a pallbearer for Laura at the funeral. I was honored that her family thought enough of me to ask. Laura and her family have always made me feel like I was part of their family. I am proud to be.

Friday, July 19th, 2002: A New Hope. I'm lying in bed catching a few more minutes of sleep before I get up and get ready for work. Then the phone rings. At this point I'm still a little leary of early morning phone calls. It was Eric from work. He had been instructed to ask me not to come to work today because there wasn't enough work to do. It was bad enough working 6 1/2 hours a day instead of the usual 8, but now I'm being denied an entire day. That just won't do. I got pissed off, threw on a shirt and tie, and got a job as a car salesman at Thomas Chrysler - Jeep of Highland. At this point, I was under the impression that this was a good move.

Wednesday, July 24th, 2002: Put another log on the fire. Just when you think things are starting to look up... Today I found out that another very close friend, Jim Robertson, has cancer. I went to the hospital right after I got back from my car sales training. He was transfered from the local hospital to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago that night. This is some serious shit. I was scared. Jim's family was scared. Jim was terrified. There's just been way to much shit for anyone to have to deal with this month.

Saturday, July 27th, 2002: A New Headache. Myself and two other new hires at the dealership had almost completed our training on how to sell cars. Our managers, who didn't seem to like us much from the start, decide to throw us out on the sales floor and see what we're capable of. Fewer days that I can recall have seemed so unbearable. The first few hours were hot, muggy, and raining. I had to be out on the car lot so that I could become familiar with our inventory. When the clouds broke, it became hotter and more humid that before. I spent 12 hours of that day on my feet, sweating my ass off in a shirt and tie. To top it all off, I didn't sell a car. Know what that means? I didn't make a fuckin' penny that day! I've got better things to do with my time than spend it looking at new cars. I hate new cars anyway!

Monday, July 29th, 2002: One more day of training. Now it's done. I am a trained car salesman. Yippee.

Wednesday, July 31st, 2002: I fuckin' quit. That's a record for me. The shortest period of time I've ever held a job: 9 days. I was scheduled to work 14 hours that day. I came to the conclusion that my time would be better spent trying to find another job. So much for selling cars.

Well, here it is. A new month. Hopefully a better month. It can't get much worse. Jim is feeling much better. He was released from the hospital Tuesday night. He needed to get out of the house and do something tonight, so Jim, Steve and I went to the movies to see Reign of Fire. (Good plot, but the ending was really rushed. I think the budget ran out a little early.) Jim looks good, but there's still the long road of chemotherapy to traverse. I have every bit of confidence that this will all turn out ok. After all, it's not July anymore!

And to kick off the new month, I'm going to Arizona again. Adam and Lisa are moving to Phoenix. They've enlisted me to drive her car along with them. I was all to eager to accept! At least this time, I'll get a tan on both arms. (its a convertable!) I can't wait to be cruising down the highway in the middle of the desert with the top down and the wind in my hair. While I'm there, I plan to hike the trail that took the lives of my friends. I have this mental picture of it from all the newspaper articles written about them, but it's not good enough. I want to see it with my own eyes. I want to be there to hear what that mountain has to say when I ask it why.

August has to be a better month. There's a new job in store for me this month. My son turns three on the 24th of this month. I get to take Little Dave to the demolition derby and the tractor pulls at the Lake County Fair this month. (That boy loves the demolition derby! Can't say that I blame him. So do I!)

So here's a toast to a new month, and better times. I don't mean to forget about the past, but I do mean to look forward to a less turbulent future. A little peace and quiet would be nice for a change.

Cheers!

Dave

July 3rd, 2002 - Haven't quite finished yet

I apologize for not having finished the writeup on my road trip. I promise I'll get it done soon. I've got a ton more pictures left to put up there, plus I've got to break it up into a few seperate pages. Some people are having trouble loading all of the images on a single page... I'm one of them.

This past week has been a little rough to find time to write. This past week has just been a little rough period. It's been an excercise in learing to let go of things I once loved. For instance, anyone who has known me since Highschool is familiar with my Yellow Pontiac LeMans... well, It's finally getting laid to rest. I've removed the engine and transmission, and the body is going to be scrapped. I hate to do it, but I've no good place to keep it. It's just rusting to shit in my back yard, and I'm continually defending my right to keep it against our fine boys in blue. Most people will read that and think, "What the hell is wrong with this guy? It's just a car." Well to them I say, no. It's not just a car. It was a faithful companion. It stuck with me through 6 years of mishaps, adventures, moves, good times, and bad. For those 6 years, there was rarely a day that I wasn't in it, or underneath it (fixing something, of course!)

Regardless, I suppose there comes a time when you have to say goodbye to things that you hold dear. Nothing lasts forever. It's time to move on. It's a sad realization to have to come to.

Actually, the past couple of weeks have been getting progressively more depressing... It seems that around each corner is someone or something waiting to kick me while I'm down. I've been through worse, but that doesn't make it any better right now.

Well, enough of my bitching, you didn't stop by here to listen to me gripe... then again, it's quite possible you may have! Nevertheless, I don't feel like griping any more. -- End of gripe

Have a good 4th of July! Don't get caught blowing up anything!

Dave

March 10, 2002

Moving on...
The long awaited pictures of the New Year's Eve party
The Last Great Bash of 2001

The first big party IN my house!

The Stage - December 31st, 2001: I had just been informed that I am quitting my job tomorrow. I have the rest of the day off. (obviously) and I have about 14 people coming over to my place tonight expecting a kick ass party. I did what anyone else in my situation would do... I drove home, cracked open a bottle of scotch, straightened up the place, and gave everyone exactly what they came for!

We had "Dark Side of the Rainbow". We had Alcohol. We had food. We had shotgun blasts at midnight. We had phone calls at 2AM to everyone's voicemail. We had one hell of a good party! I passed out at about 2:30am, and when I woke up at 6:00am, I heard the party still going on! I'm about to try it again this Saturday for St. Pattrick's Day, so be on the lookout for more good party pictures! In the mean time, here's the ones from NYE.

January 30, 2002

You want the story? Here it is.

For the record, I did voluntarily resign my position at the bank

Here's the reader's digest version:

I didn't change a backup tape. The system went to shit while I was taking a three day road trip. Centier lost 2 days worth of data on Synergy. I was given the opportunity to resign my position, and it was strongly suggested that I take that opportunity. I did.

Now, for those of you that are satisfied with that, you can stop reading now. As for the rest of you, please read on, but be forewarned... I'm feeling unusually long winded tonight! (and for me, that's pretty bad!)

A few of you already know the story, but from what I hear, no one's really said much about me. I guess that can be either good or bad. Just depends on your perspective!

First off, I'd like to extend a hearty congratulations and job well done to the marketing department for doing such a great job on editing me out of the all associate's meeting this year. I guess that after three and a half years of working alongside my "friends", I've managed to slip into oblivion as far as the bank is concerned. The few people who have managed to keep in touch give me the impression that my name is taboo in the hallowed halls of Centier. I guess it doesn't surprise me much. I've seen it happen many times before, and I'm sure it'll happen again. Especially in the marketing department. People don't seem to last to long around there. I wonder why...

In reviewing what I've just written, you might get the impression that I'm a little bitter. Such is not the case. Not at all. Amused... yes. Bitter, no. After all, what happened was ultimately my doing. Who would I be bitter tward? Will? Certianly not. Judging by the look in his eyes, I'll bet that was one of the hardest things he's had to do. Should I be bitter tward Sharon, since she's replacing me? Not hardly. I'm very happy for Sharon. She really needed a change of scenery, if you know what I mean. (but I am left wondering... who'll type Leslie's homework for her now?)

Ok, enough chit-chat... down to buisiness. Here's what happened....

I have been discontent with my job for a while now. Some people were able to pick up on it, and others had no clue. I'm not one to show you how I'm really feeling, so it does take a bit of deeper observation. Most people are content to take what they see on the outside as fact and accept it. After all, what you see on the outside is usually easier to digest.

I think my discontentment ran a little deeper than my job, though. Of course as far as Centier is concerned, there is no life outside of the bank, but as far as I'm concerned, there is. For the past year, I've been in desperate need of a breather, a break, a vacation, at least a period of a week or more where I didn't have to fix something! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take that vacation until my mortgage was financially settled. To some of you, that may not sound like much, but to any of you who knew what I was getting into, you'll understand. I was getting burned out big time on all of it. The job, the house, the finances, etc... Apparently it showed, because a couple of people called me on it, and they were dead on. They said, "Dave, you don't seem like yourself." You know something... I wasn't.

After talking to some of my friends at the bank, I had come to the conclusion that I'm not a short haired, shirt and tie kind of guy. Oh, you didn't think that you'd get through reading this without hearing me bitch about my hair, did you? I'll be the first to tell you that hair length isn't the most important thing in the world, but what is important is individuality. I gotta be me... Short hair isn't my style. I don't like it. No one at the bank has ever known me when I had my long hair. (besides my Aunt Janet and Libby) That was me. That was my style. That's how I liked it. I decided to cut it for shock value a week before I turned 21 years old. I get bored every now and then, and I like to stir things up a bit. That certianly did it, because no one ever thought that they'd see me without long hair!

Shortly thereafter, I accepted the position in the MIS department at Centier Bank. It wasn't until later that I found out that I wasn't "allowed" to have long hair. No big deal, I thought. It's just hair. That excuse really grows old after three and a half years. Think of it this way. It's like the bank telling Will that his hair has to be at least 3 inches long. He could do it, but it's not how he'd like to wear his hair. It's like the bank telling the female employees that they have to have hair that's longer than shoulder length. How long would you wear your hair to someone else's specifications before it really started to bother you? For me, it was no big deal for about a year. The following two and a half are a diffrent story.

Enough about the hair. That's not what this is all about. It's a small part of a much larger picture. I used to have infinite patience with people. There are very few people on this planet who have seen me loose my cool. Outside of my immediate family, I can think of four: Jenn (Little Dave's mom), Kristie, Stacy (old highschool girlfriend), and Phil. I used to be very happy to get a phone call from someone who was having trouble with their computer, and I'd always go out of my way to help them fix it. Because of that job, my patience was growing thin, and I found myself having to conciously make an effort to stay calm and polite when people would call me with their computer problems. That's not like me at all, and it really started to bother me. Again, not a whole lot of people picked up on this, because on the surface I maintained an even keel. A few picked up on the subtlties.

I was wearing thin, and it was starting to show. One thing that I noticed is that I started to loose my ambition. Difficult tasks were sometimes set aside for another time in lieu of something easier to accomplish. This again is not me. Anyone who's known me for any length of time knows that I'm not one to do things the easy way. I'll usually do things the hard way just to prove that I can! I was loosing that, and it started to affect my job performance. One thing in particular that was affected was the file server backups at the branches.

Backup Exec for Novell Netware is not exactly a rock solid backup application. We had about 28 servers running this application. I could spend a week straight getting them all working perfectly, turn around 2 weeks later, and over half of them would have crashed and burned. This wasn't much incentive to keep fixing them. It was a difficult task that required a lot of time. I was given the opportunity to relinquish the responsibility some time ago, but I couldn't. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a stubborn son-of-a-bitch. I had every intention of fixing them all, but when it came down to it, I was so burned out that I set it aside for another day. I turned a blind eye to it for quite some time, because fixing it was monotonous, futile, and a royal pain in the ass. Not like that's an exceptable excuse, but that's why I did it.

That was Royal Fuck-up Number One. Someone from auditing was doing her job, and asked Will to show her a backup system at one of the branches. He pulled up one of the branch file servers remotely, and checked the backup log to show her how it had been backing up. It hadn't. He had to look like an asshole in front of the auditing department because I wasn't on the ball. That was bad news. Will conducted his own assessment of the file server backups and found that not one was working properly. Some hadn't backed up for an entire year. I got bawled out for that one pretty good, and I deserved every bit of it. After all, it was my fuck-up. Will informed me that by all rights, I should have been fired right then and there, but he saw fit to give me the chance to set things right.

It was my responsibility to get all of the branch file servers backing up reliably in a little less than one month. I then proceeded to bust my ass trying to set them all striaght. I was concentrating on it all day long at work, and then I'd usually end up putting in a couple of hours late in the evening on my way back home from whatever it was that I did after work that day. On top of that, I had to submit to Will, a time log of everything I'd done that day. I was also told that I was not to take care of any personal buisiness on bank time. (As if my being on call 24/7 for the bank had never cut into my personal time.) And to top it all off, I was informed that the next fuck-up could result in my immediate termination. Basically, I was on probation.

I had been working night and day on those backups. I had all but 6 backups working reliably. Those six needed to have equipment replaced before they would work again. If you thought I was burned out before, you should have seen me after 2 weeks of this shit! I was at my wits end, but as usual, there were only a small handful of people who really saw that side of me. Kristie took two days off, and Will asked me to change the Ops Center backup tape and the Synergy backup tape. (both of which, Kristie usually does) I said that I would. By the end of the day, after having worked on those damned backups all day long, I was in such a rush to leave the building, I forgot to change those two tapes both days. No big deal, because I was in again later each evening.

I remembered while I was there each night, and I set the Ops center backup to use the tape already in it. Now comes my big mistake. I assumed that the Synergy backup would overwrite the tape that was already in the tape drive, since it never really ejected it. I know that there was a time when this was the case, but apparently the configuration had changed since then. The backup searches for a specific tape in the rotation. If it finds the wrong tape, it won't use it. I didn't double check this. I assumed...

I had originally planned a 3 day road trip to Hell, Michigan for the time inbetween Christmas and New Year's Eve. I asked Will if I could still take those three days off. I was about ready to burst. I had to take some time off, or I was going to snap. He agreed to let me go. (I'll have the details to that trip on here at a later date.)

When I came back on New Years Eve, Kristie informed me that Will wanted to see me in his office first thing. I knocked on the door and peeked in. Nikki was already in there. I think I knew what was up before I even opened the door, but after seeing her in there, I knew for sure. Will and I had our private meeting, in which he explained to me that the Synergy backup didn't work for those two days. He also informed me that Synergy had crashed that following week while I was on my road trip. The end result was that Centier lost 2 days worth of data. Someone had to be blamed, and all the fingers pointed to me. This was Royal Fuck-Up Number Two. I was then informed that I had the opportunity to resign effective January 1st, 2002. This would allow me to recieve the bonus for 2001, and also still recieve my pay for my unused personal time in 2001. In all fairness, they did help me out a lot by giving me this option. I'd have been a fool not to take it.

The trick was, I was already planning on resigning. Not quite this soon, but the plan was already in the works. I was unhappy where I was, and so I was making preperations to move on. Some of my preperations included establishing a bit of a cash buffer. That was a good thing! That, along with the bonus, tax return, and unused personal time assured me that I'd have enough money for a few months of living before I was really in a bind. Luckily, three days later I was asked to return to my old job at Computer Bay. That income, coupled with my cash buffer will last a while. Plus, I've had quite a bit of side work lately. I'm not hurting by any means for the moment.

Now for the best part!

After my meeting with Will on the morning of New Year's Eve, I went home to prepare for the party I was hosting that night. I was walking out of the building contemplating everything that had just happened. It was a bit overwhelming. Then, one single thought came to my mind... "Holy shit! I can grow my hair back!" Only those who are close to me can truly appreciate how happy that one thought made me! I actually started singing it to myself all the way across the parking lot on the way to my truck. I was smiling ear to ear!

The evening just kept getting better! That night, I had my first party in my nearly completed house. I have matching furniture in the living room, carpet in every room, and there was enough room for people to move about without knocking over something! It truly was a spectacular party! There were about 15 people there, and the party lasted well into the next day. I'll put it this way, after approximately two thirds of a bottle of scotch, I passed out in my bedroom. This happened at about 2:30am. I woke up at 6:00am and still heard people carrying on in the living room! Now that's a party!

Since my departure from Centier Bank, I've felt myself beginning to return to my old self. I'm starting to play with computers as a hobby again instead of just as a job. I'm generally happier, and when you see me smile, it's genuine again. In what is the second most turbulent time in my life, I have no worries. I have the confidence that I can make things work out. I always do...

I think that about covers it. Feel free to pass this link onto anyone whom you feel might be interested to know, and as always, I welcome your thoughts. If you'd like to get a hold of me, my cell phone number has not changed. Fell free to call me anytime. If you don't have my cell phone number, just send me an email. I can be reached at dave@isomtech.com

I thank you for taking the time to read through this. To all my fellow associates at Centier, Thanks for the memories. While I was discontent with the job, I really loved the people I worked with. Thanks!

Smile,

Dave

Why Buy Foreign?

November 21, 2001

So you can be ignored.

I took this picture last night in front of Hunch Furs on Rt. 30 in Merrillville. Apparently, Mercedes has been less than cooperative in his quest for a reliable vehicle. Incidentally, Hunch Furs is a really great place to buy a leather coat from. Have you ever seen my full length leather coat? That's where I bought it, and it was at a great price!

Unfortunately, this website is still being developed, but feel free to snoop around and see what I've accomplished so far. Not only am I still learning HTML, but I'm extremely limited on time, so it may take a while before its completed. Untill then, I'll keep chipping away at it one piece at a time.

Feel free to check out the website for my side buisness, Isomtech Computer Solutions.

Waiting to see what I have to say?

November 13, 2001 9:30AM CST

Me too. I've usually got some witty shit here, but I've moved it off to the archive section to make room for new witty shit. The only problem is I'm in the middle of fixing a file server that some moron reset without knowing how to do it properly, and more importantly, without me telling him to! Taking an initiative is one thing, but completely hosing up a file server because you have no clue what the hell you are doing... well that's just plain ignorant!

Back to work!
- Dave

Who the Hell am I?

November 13, 2001 (sometime after fixing the moron's file server faux pas!)

Here's a little something for your perusal. I took a personality test at Brainbench.com just for the hell of it. Here's the results. I'm not going to tell you how accurate I think the results are. If you know me, read it and draw your own conclusions. If you don't know me, well then I guess this won't be very interesting to you...

Unless you're from the FBI...

You're not from the FBI, are you?

Click Here to Read My Results

Something Scary for Halloween!

Trick or Treat!

October 23, 2001

What's wrong with this picture?

I was flying at about 6000 feet with my friend Jim a few weeks ago, and we noticed something. All across the horizon, you see a haze, due to moisture, clouds, etc... The funny thing we noticed is that right about where the steel mills and oil refineries are in Whiting and Gary, that haze turned from a light grey color to a nasty brown - yellow color. Tell me that's due to my automobile exhaust, and I'll punch you in the throat.

These pictures were taken from the same stretch of highway that the clean air sign is on. Yeah... they're really going to convince me that my car is the one that's killing the atmosphere with that sign!

October 1, 2001

Slow Down!

I've found a better use for them! Don't you think these signs might be a bit more usefull in a red-light district? As my friend Steve suggested, we should take one down, and put it up on the corner of 5th and Broadway in Gary, Indiana. At least the sign would make more sense there!

In that respect, it was so nice of Bobby to advertise for his mommy like that. After all, the more business she gets, the better the toys will be at Christmas! Bobby, you get the Dave's World Award for Best Prostitute Solicitation!

September 14, 2001

These Colors Never Run

Little Dave just celebrated his 2nd Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE!

Wanna know what I think of cats?

03/23/01 - Here's the latest news! I was just granted my call letters from the FCC. I am now oficially a licensed HAM radio operator. My call letters are KB9ZDE. I'll expand on it later, and most likely end up devoting a secion of this ever-growing website to Amateur Radio.

Dale Earnhardt 1951 - 2001 The best there was, and ever will be Dale, your legend lives on in our hearts