BYOD - Bring Your Own Device

I'm finding one of things I miss most at my new job at Travelers (more on that soon) is that I am now using a company computer instead of my own laptop. MacWorld had a good article about bringing our own devices into the enterprise. Read it here

A Guide to Social Media

Not sure who to give credit to on this but I like it.

How to Change a Laptop Hard Drive

Awhile back I replaced a failing hard drive in a friend's laptop and decided to take pictures along the way.

This particular laptop is a Dell, but laptops are generally the same when it comes to replacing components.

Why did I replace the hard drive? Well, the operating system (Windows 7) was acting strange which is a sign of one of two things: 1) The software has corrupted and needs to be reinstalled, or 2) the hardware (hard drive, memory or motherboard) is failing and needs to replaced. As an IT guy, I have different tools I can use to diagnose an unhealthy computer. Most of these tools involve booting to a CD and running some sort of diagnostic test specific to an individual part in the machine. I tested the memory which passed fine, and then the hard drive, which failed. Now the hard drive was still working enough to recover the data saved on it, so that was a bonus. We opted to replace the hard drive for $100 instead of replacing the whole computer.

I've had good luck with Western Digital hard drives, so I purchased one from NewEgg (a great place for computer parts and accessories).

Let's get started!

Step 1: Gather Equipment
We'll need the following:
1) Container for screws so we don't loose them
2) A phillips screwdriver
3) A flat screwdriver
4) A new hard drive
5) A broken laptop

Step 2: The Basic components

Out of curiosity, you may be wondering what all these things are on the underside of your laptop, I labeled a few in the photo below. Go ahead, flip your laptop over and get familiar. 

Step 3: Disconnect power source and remove the battery

Before working on any computer, always, disconnect the power source - this means removing the battery as well. Yes, there are some laptops with internal batteries that cannot be removed, we learn to deal with it. 

A) Confirm laptop is shut down

B) Unplug power adapter

C) Push the release levers to unlock the battery (white arrows in photo)

Step 4: Remove the hard drive cover

A) Use a screwdriver to remove the cover over the hard drive - screws are highlighted below in green. 

B) Set the cover out of the way. (In some cases, the screws are attached to the cover - leave them attached or you won't be able to secure the cover later - see green circles below.)

C) You will notice this laptop actually has room for TWO hard drives but is only using one. 

Step 5: Remove the hard drive caddy

A) Use a screwdriver to remove the screws for the hard drive caddy.

B) Remove the hard drive caddy. Depending the laptop, it may require you to separate the hard drive from the machine by pulling the caddy up or sliding it away from its connector. For this model, pull up on the black plastic tab once the screws are removed and safely place in our screw container. 

Step 6: Remove failed hard drive from caddy, replace with new hard drive

A) Use a screwdriver to remove the screws holding the hard drive to the caddy.

B) Then taking note of which how the hard drive was positioned in the caddy, replace with the new hard drive. 

C) Screw caddy to the hard drive, just snug, these are delicate electronics folks, no need to go all Hercules on them. 

Step 7: Move the hard drive adapter from the old hard drive to the new drive

Often laptop hard drives will have some sort of adapter to connect the pins on the hard drive to the laptop's hard drive controller. 

A) Carefully, use the flat screwdriver to separate the adapter from the old drive by "walking" it off - a little from each end, then install on the new hard drive. Try not to touch the gold pins with your fingers. 

Step 8: Reassemble hard drive caddy (with new drive) in the laptop, return the hard drive cover, reinstall the battery.

Assembly is the opposite of disassembly - make sure you don't have any spare screws!

Step 9: Start your recovery process

In my case I reinstalled Windows 7 from the DVD, then copied the files from the damaged drive to the new system. 

Best of luck. Posts coming soon: How to Recover Data from a Fail(ed/ing) Hard Drive and How to Upgrade the Memory in a Laptop

MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro

My Uncle is looking to purchase his next laptop and is thinking he'll enter the world of Apple computers. As the wise consumer that he his, he asked for input on which model he should get, the MacBook Air or the MacBook Pro (the 13" model)

The MacBook Air from Apple.com

For starters, switching to Mac has is an entire post in itself but I'll keep it short with this: If you are used to (and rely on Microsoft Office) in a business environment, be aware MS Office for Mac is not an exact replicate. If you are a fan of Outlook for Windows, I warn you: Outlook for Mac is not nearly as robust as its Windows counter part. I have enjoyed using Mac Mail but it definitely doesn't handle a Microsoft Exchange server (most large companies use Exchange for e-mail) as well as Outlook, but it works well enough. Apple computers also ship with a lot of built-in, free software such a Preview (a great PDF program) and iPhoto (photo library and editor).

I have owned 2 Apple laptops, a 15" PowerBook (2005) and a 15" MacBook Pro (2010) and have been extremely happy with their longevity and the operating system (OSX, instead of Windows XP, Vista or 7).

When comparing the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro, the main deciding factor is functionality. If you are looking for a computer to surf the web and check email, the Air is for you. It is extremely light weight, fast (flash hard drive), and a slick machine. Some major drawbacks about the Air are: No CD/DVD drive (i.e. no watching movies on disc or burning discs) and no on board network adapter (no plugging into a network cable at the office). Now, both of these short comings can be overcome with USB accessories, but it is worth noting. If you don't need a CD/DVD drive or a hard wired connection to the network (WiFi only) then these aren't deal breakers for you. The Air's flash hard drive is smaller, so keep that in mind if you are planning on saving lots of photos on your computer.

Now for the MacBook Pro... this machine comes with Firewire and Thunderbolt ports in addition to the USB, mainly for accessories as well as the CD/DVD drive. The Pro also comes with a better processor and larger (but slower) hard drive, of course you can always splurge for the solid state drive for better performance.

These two machine are also quite close in cost, so the features of one may be considered a wash for just $200, that call is up to you.

Well, it is past my bed time and I'm sure this could use a good proof-reading, but I'm wrapping up a server upgrade and going to bed. Best of luck, feel free to post specific questions, I'll try to answer them the best I can.

A Good Reminder These Days

Taken from http://powertochange.com/blogposts/2012/01/06/stepping-into-the-unknown/


Stepping into the Unknown

Are you facing an uncertain future? Come talk to a mentor.

“He went without knowing where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8b, NLT)
It’s a new year – a new beginning, new unknown territory. It can be a scary journey at times. Will I have the courage to step out into the unknown as Abraham did? Will you?
As I stand here with my toes on the threshold of the new year I know that God knows where He and I are going. Do I then go forward in faith’s victory to possess this new year…or remain frozen in victim’s defeat, allowing it to possess me?
As Jesus once said to a man whom He was about to heal, “Step forward.” (Mark 3:3b NKJV) Will I step forward believing and trusting for the answer to that which I need, remembering what God has done for me in the past? Or will I hang back in the shadows afraid to move ahead, forgetting God’s providence?
Just as God told Isaiah, He says you and me, “Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like Me.” (Isaiah 46:9, NLT)
God will again make His provisions available in the new year for it is in His plan for each of us. He says, “I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” (Jer. 29:11 Msg)
As God led every step of the Israelites’ journey to the new land, so He still leads us today. When we take those wobbly steps into the unknown, what will this new land hold for us?
We may encounter…
* joys unspeakable
* smooth paths of guidance
* lush pastures of provision
* hilltop experiences
* spiritual blessings in abundance
However, we may also encounter…
* desert dryness
* valley mists and fogs
* wilderness wanderings
* gremlins hiding behind bushes
* paths with potholes and pitfalls
* steep uphill climbs and dangerous downhill slides
Challenges will meet us at every turn, some easier to handle than others. But God will work in all the ups and downs of those trials, heartaches, and blessings.
He does this for us because of His compassion and mercy. Jeremiah tells us, “Yet there is one ray of hope: His compassion never ends. It is only the Lord’s mercies that have kept us from complete destruction. Great is His faithfulness; His loving-kindness begins afresh each day.” (Lamentations 3:21-23, TLB)
Be assured that no matter what happens on your journey this year, He is the source of your fresh mercies every morning. He will never fail you. He will walk by your side along each rocky bend in the road and carry you through each heartache and loss. God will see you through to the end of next year. Will you live as Abraham? “By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country.” (Hebrews 11:9a, NKJV)
We live our outward days on earth as in a foreign country, for we abide in God’s Kingdom of promise within us. Therefore, each day brings a new threshold into eternity. How can we not welcome it with willing feet and open arms? I am ready to step into the journey of each new day of this year, greeting each one in faith and with God’s mercy.
Questions: How about you? Are you ready? How will you greet the challenges of your new journey?

Ready to upgrade to Lion - Are you sure?

Mac OSX 10.7 aka Lion was recently released and many Mac users jumped on the band wagon and upgraded. It's always wise to wait until the dust settles after major releases, even Apple's extensive testing cannot predict some of the quirks that arise. There are two reasons why I'm glad I didn't jump at loading Lion onto my laptop.

The first reason is several of my programs are not Lion compatible, meaning they use the old PowerPC architecture, which Lion no longer supports. You too can check your compatibility by going to the Apple Menu > About this Mac

Then select More Info...

Then select the Applications list from the left hand column and look for any programs that have PowerPC in the Kind column. Any of the PowerPC applications will not work in Lion (or so I've read from others, haven't actually tried this yet).

The second reason I'm glad I didn't upgrade yet was this article. Apple accidentally re-charged customers for their Lion upgrades of $30 multiple times and in one case 122 times for a total near $4,000! I hope they get this figured out shortly.

Also - always remember to backup your files before upgrading. My next post will be about making a bootable backup of your Mac using the built-in Disk Utility.

Looking for our next home

Recently Brandy and I have been talking more and more about our next place. We currently rent an in-law apartment from my parents. The space has been great for us while living on my income with Brandy in school, rent is cheap and my parents have been able to help us out in many ways. We are contemplating moving out soon and have waver back and forth on our options. We see several options:

1)We can continue to rent the space until we've put a good dent in college loans and saved up a downpayment on a house. - Looks great on paper but it would take another two years (not sure our, nor my parents' patience is up for that!)

2) We could rent an apartment. - A decent apartment in our area is $900+ a month which is almost a mortgage payment but doesn't require the downpayment.

3) We could try to get mortgage for a small starter house. - Not ideal space but avoidable and would be an asset to resell later in order to purchase our dream home. 

It's hard to make big financial decisions with so many variables. Some things that come to mind are: the housing market is down, I wish we could take advantage of it - or - an apartment seems like counter productive - or - if we bought a starter house, we could get stuck with it later... Ahh so many things to think about. I keep telling Brandy and myself that we shouldn't think or stress over it until she has reliable employment as a dental hygienist, but it is difficult to maintain that mentality. 

Wow it's been awhile

Okay so you'll have to forgive me for the lack of posts. I don't have a good excuse, I just kept forgetting to write. I do have a follow up to some of the posts I've previously written.

First, I did complete several chapters of my Unix for Mac Users book before I was swamped at work and the last thing I wanted to do on the weekend was spend more time on the computer. Well recently I've been working on my Linux server administrator skills and have learned a lot in the last couple weeks. With the help of the guys at work for some practical examples and a great VI tutorial online, I'm on my way!

Next, it seems I have been swayed away from the idea of my next car...the Honda Accord has been pushed back for the newer Acura TSX. The TSX is basically the European version of the Accord so it's still in the family. I'm hoping to test drive one soon to really be sure it's the car for me. Sometimes it's tough to be content with our current vehicles breaking down and having issues but God's been good to us. Yesterday Brandy took her car in because both front tires (relatively new) were losing air overnight. They found a nail in one (replaced it) and repaired the other for $14! Now we just have to decide what we're going to do about the leaking oil and radiator in Brandy's car and the failing struts in mine...

There's a quick update, nothing to write home about but I hope I can get back into the swing of writing weekly again.

Social Media and Business - Emarketing 101

At first, social media appears to be somewhat of a personal way to interact with friends. However, it quickly became an area where millions of people are crammed into cyberspace ready to soak in what others have to say. The business and marketing side of me can't see past the access to potential customers gained through the use of social media. It can be difficult to quantify the benefits and ROI of using social media as an advertising platform although no one can deny the incredibly captive audience the internet provides. 

Often I encounter clients who are looking for some tangible evidence the work put into social media (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs) and with e-marketing  campaigns (Google AdWords, Constant Contact etc) was worth it to their business. It's not easy but it is doable with a little creativity. 

The easiest way is to offer discounts or coupons organized in a way you can tell which coupon came from which advertisement (Facebook, Google Ad, Email etc). It is also important to narrow your audience from the world wide web down to your target markets (the narrow group of people that would benefit most from your product or service). 

For instance, an apple orchard in New England is not particularly interested in spending money advertising to those in Washington state for pick your own apples.  So the orchard can limit their Google AdWord campaign to those in a geographical area, say a 20 mile radius around the orchard itself.

Another example would be through email marketing with the use of Constant Contact. Everyone hates to receive the mass mailings in their inbox, however if done correctly, they can be an incredible tool. 

First, when setting up a signup for email marketing also gather people’s addresses. It’s a border line call how anonymous your signup should be (just email address, or add name, address, phone number OR just their email and city/state etc). With increased information about your potential buyers, you can target them based on geographic region, interests etc. 

With email marketing campaigns, the good ones keep track of several important pieces of information:

1. Was the message delivered or bounced? 
2. If the message bounced, why? (Either the email account no longer exists or the inbox is full)
3. What percentage of people opened and read the message?
4. What percentage of people clicked on a link from the message?
5. Which link did they click on from the message?

For those with bounced message, if you have their address, you can mail them a “We’ve missed you” postcard offering some discount for coming back. 

There’s e-marketing in a nutshell, I’d like to hear your feedback.

I'm on Twitter

I started this blog with a challenge of keeping up with it weekly. It's been tough so I'm up to go at it again and use a reminder on my calendar to write a post each week.

Part of my job is knowing about the latest technologies and being able to speak intelligently on most of them. I never really considered myself much of a Geek, I can't name but 3 Star Trek characters, I haven't seen all the Star Wars movies, I don't have any nerdy t-shirts but nonetheless I'm a computer guy and by default a Geek to some point.

I've had an inner battle so to speak regarding how involved I should be with social media, this blog for insistence. Either way I need to use more of it in order to become somewhat of an expert on how to use it effectively.

Yesterday I signed up for a Twitter account and installed the app on my iPhone. I’ve already picked up a couple of followers, but they are strangers whom I don’t know and have a feeling they’re just robo followers, oh well. You can follow me @theMatthewKline.

Check back soon for more talk on advertising over the internet!

Favorite Hymns

This morning in church we mixed it up and only had a piano (a fantastic pianist) and only sang hymns. Although we sang several favorites, The Old Rugged Cross is by far my favorite for several reasons including great lyrics, it's in a 6/8 time measure and one particular memory.

I can remember sitting in the evening service with my grandparents in the Ellington Wesleyan Church, bright red carpet, long pine pews that reflected the bright fluorescent lamps and the feeling of being the youngest in attendance by at least 25 years. Regardless, attenders would request hymns and the small gathering of 10-20 people would sing. I can see and hear my grandfather singing in his off pitch, extra loud voice with incredible unexplainable joy. Just looking back on that memory makes me smile and I hope that my life becomes one of service in tune with God's will as much as his is.

You can always find this hymn online, I'm sure all over YouTube but here are the lyrics, I challenge you to carefully read each verse and chorus and take a couple minutes to reflect on the story this tune tells.

1. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
   The emblem of suff’ring and shame;
   And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
   For a world of lost sinners was slain.
2. 
   
3. Refrain:
4. So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
5. Till my trophies at last I lay down;
6. I will cling to the old rugged cross,
7. And exchange it some day for a crown.
8. Oh, that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
   Has a wondrous attraction for me;
   For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
   To bear it to dark Calvary.
9. Refrain:
   So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
   Till my trophies at last I lay down;
   I will cling to the old rugged cross,
   And exchange it some day for a crown.
10. In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
    A wondrous beauty I see,
    For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
    To pardon and sanctify me.
11. Refrain:
    So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
    Till my trophies at last I lay down;
    I will cling to the old rugged cross,
    And exchange it some day for a crown.
12. To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;
    Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
    Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
    Where His glory forever I’ll share.
13. Refrain:
    So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
    Till my trophies at last I lay down;
    I will cling to the old rugged cross,
    And exchange it some day for a crown.

Staying sharp

A couple years back I had asked my boss to help me with learning the UNIX file system running my wonderful Mac OS X. More or less, it's the "under the hood" for Apple's operating system as well as other UNIX distributions like Ubuntu. He soon realized he wouldn't have time and instead bought me a book, "A practical guide to UNIX for Mac OS X Users" found here at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Guide-UNIX-Mac-Users/dp/0131863339

It's a good book and I've decided I'm going to do at least a chapter a week, answer the end of the chapter questions and turn them in to the boss or one of our other system administrators as "homework" and allow them to keep me accountable.

Of course this seems fairly manageable... however... One of the Borders bookstores near us is closing and my wife and I stopped by to see if there were any decently discounted books. I was disappointed, all the books I was interested in were still cheaper on Amazon. (Oh how much money my iPhone has saved me being able to check prices while in a store!) I was standing in the technology section and had a stack of books I was still interested in and it was feeling rather depressed. So much of the information on those pages I just wanted to absorb so I could use the knowledge and practice as tools in my day to day work as a web designer (JavaScript Joomla, Flash, etc), help desk technician, Mac OS X guru etc.

Needless to say, I'll work my way through my current text book (approximately 2 inches thick) before starting my next one. Luckily enough, we've been talking about some training time for work so I'm excited about that when the time comes.

I challenge you to take an hour a week to study something in your field and don't skip the questions at the end of the chapters!

My next car

I'm currently driving my grandfather's 2001 Buick LeSabre and it gets me from here to there. For a car that cost me nothing, I can't complain. I've only had to change the spark plugs, brakes and gas cap aside from the regular maintenance which isn't bad for a car over 100,000 miles.

Lately it's had me frustrated and ready for my next car, which of course I'm not ready to purchase but I secretly hoped researching a new car would scare the old girl into behaving a little while longer... and so far it's worked.

I've been plagued by a check engine light and for me it's just something I can't ignore. A new gas cap stopped that for a while but a couple weeks ago that stupid light came back. I couldn't figure out what it was and finally took it to get the code diagnosed. The results came back to do with a temperature sensor...great...just what I needed. After going over everything with a fine tooth comb, I thought it wouldn't hurt to top off the antifreeze. Well apparently those few ounces make a difference to that car. So the light is off and I've only had to top it off once since then.

I'm the type of guy who wants to have a plan in place for just about everything I can. I used to think this was a great personality trait but have since learned otherwise. Planning is good, just don't get carried away...

I like researching and wanted to a plan that if and when my car has taken me from A to B for the last time, I'm ready for it. So I started researching and learned I had some expensive tastes... well as nice as German cars are, particularly the Audi A4, it really didn't make sense for day to day life. After brainstorming what I needed versus what would be nice (commonly referred to as the likes, as in not the must haves) I came up with a Honda Accord. The problem being I'm not too fond of the looks although it's a great car. Until I found the newer Accords still come with an optional manual transmission (one of my must haves) and I like the look of the redesigned body style for 2008 and newer. It sounds silly but I had been agonizing over this problem for weeks and the answer brought great peace.

Edit*

I forgot to mention that this decision was mostly arrived through a piece of advice from a good friend. Buy only the car you need, they'll be time later in life to buy the car you want.

So when the Buick is ready to retire, this will be it's replacement.

*Photo from Google Images

So here goes nothing...

I've been challenged by probably the only reader of this blog to keep it up to date by making a post each week. It seems like a challenge I can at least take a good crack at....

As for me, a while I go I updated my personal website, www.matthew-brandy.com. Nothing special just a little facelift. My wife is in her last semester of dental hygiene school and studying like crazy for her boards exam. We are both eager for her to be done with school and hope for a closer to normal commute as she is currently driving about 90 minutes each way.

In other news, the owner of my company is returning from a 3 week mission trip to the Congo on Wednesday. He's seem to have a good trip so far and we are ready to have him back. I'm sure his family is even more anxious than we are. Regardless, in his absence the VP and myself have been running the show and doing rather well. It's been a good experience in management as I've had to step it up in areas of project management, leadership and discipline/encouraging fellow employees.

My latest achievement was setting a mobile version of a website for one of our customers. She was very specific about her Flash site working on her Blackberry. I designed a mobile homepage that closely resembled the Flash site, setup a Blackberry emulator, and setup the code to auto detect the correct version to display. Getting everything buttoned up and working was a great way to end the work week, total sense of accomplishment. If you're looking for some help on how to setup the auto detect code, I can help you out, just let me know.

Okay, that's enough for now, stay tuned to see if I can meet the challenge of keeping the blog updated. Take care.

Wow it's been awhile

Okay, so I came back from vacation, started a blog and then forget to update it...

Well I'm going to try to get better at that, just for that one and only reader.

I'm headed to another wedding tomorrow, thankfully the last of the summer. It's not that I don't like weddings, but all the traveling is getting expensive. I was looking at buying a car charger/FM transmitter for my iPhone and was about to pull the trigger at Walmart today. Except, I used my iPhone to scan the bar code and find it $30 cheaper online. So I don't get it in time for the trip, but for crying out loud, $30 cheaper?!?

Anyway, being the businessman that I am, the scenario poses an interesting question about commerce. When it comes to products, what percentage of consumers are okay with waiting for shipping to save a few (or many) dollars? I know I'm frugal and even though I'm bummed I didn't have the item for this up coming trip, I'll deal with it.

What about you?

Here's another thought, what about buying locally? If I can, I'd like to give the local guy my business even if costs a few dollars more (as long as the service is on par). What about you? Do you even think to buy local, choice by price, or some other deciding factor for where you purchase your goods?

Later

Matt

Happy Anniversary !

This past Sunday I celebrated one year of marriage with my wonderful wife Brandy. We went out to dinner and the one thing we said over and over was how we couldn't believe how fast the year went. We are looking forward to the days ahead when our schedules settle down and we can have some what of a normal life.

Disengaging from work

Disengaging from work has been extra difficult this week. I am currently working for an IT consulting company and I thoroughly enjoy my job on most days. This week both of my superiors are on vacation and it's made my job pretty stressful. I had just come off my vacation and needed to catch up on somethings but never had the chance to; hitting the ground running with outstanding requests and new projects. I'm looking forward to next week when my attention will not be pulled in quite so many directions.

Regardless of this week or not, I find it rather difficult to disengage my brain from my work. It seems that when I get home I'm always thinking about the business, how I can improve it, how I can improve myself etc. I decided in college that no matter what kind of job I had after graduation that I wouldn't be one of those guys who sacrifices family time for the business. I believe God makes it clear that your identity should not be in your work but in Him, then your family, then maybe your job.

I'm going to have to cut this one short, but would love to hear any suggestions on "clearing the mind" when it's time to spend time with the family.

Vacation Time

This past week my wife and I have taken a vacation to her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. I planned to work some and vacation some... bad choice. It seemed that whenever we'd plan to do something together, something came up at work. Regardless, we managed to have a pretty good time visiting her family.

We did managed to get a little too much sun. I only have a little burn on my shoulders but Brandy got it pretty bad on her whole front half. Oh well, she learned she didn't tan like she used to.

At the moment I'm sitting in cousin Becky's condo in Charlotte, North Carolina and finally feel like I'm on vacation... and we go home tomorrow. There aren't any fires to put out at work, just some tasks to get done during the day tomorrow. Both Brandy and I are pretty tired from staying out late last night at her sister's house, packing, me having a terrible allergic reaction to her sister's cats and catching the first plane out this morning. I just woke up from a quick nap and Brandy's still asleep, I enjoy naps. Becky picked us up this morning, we grabbed lunch at Chic-fil-a, walked around the mall and finished our outing with some ice cream from Coldstone Creamery. It was like being a kid again, having someone take you out and buy your lunch and ice cream, it was really fun and Becky's a blast anyway.

Time to relax a bit longer before having to head home tomorrow.

Motorcycle Ride

Today was my first motorcycle ride of the year. Usually I get out before now but it just didn't happen. I tried to get out yesterday but the rain had other plans.

After completing my pre-ride checks (blinkers, brake lights, tire pressure etc) and prayer for safety (something I always do after being rear-ended last year) I was off. I started by going up by Crystal Lake and then just worked my way through the country roads of Tolland. I had forgotten how much I love to ride. Taking the right of the main drag onto a side road became a transition, not just a turn. There I was, just me, the bike and the road. I love cruising through the country roads. We are fortunate enough to live in the country with plenty of trees, so imagine riding through a tunnel of lush leaves painted by the Creator with every shade of green all attached to strong branches that merge into towering trunks. There is something therapeutic about riding through these roads on a motorcycle. Without all the extra space of a car, you become one with the bike as you lean with every turn of the road. However, my favorite part of riding the country roads isn't something you can see, just feel. The air in those green tunnels is different, it is substantially cooler and it feels wonderful as you ride through it, almost like an invisible cloud. You really have to try it sometime!

My plan was just to ride and explore and possibly get lost if my internal GPS allowed it. I came to a fork in the road and neither side was paved...not such a good thing on a motorcycle. I grew up riding dirtbikes which are made for this, riding a street bike on loose gravel is like trying to maintain your balance on marbles... certainly doable but not preferable. It made me think of that poem we learned in high school, "two road diverged in a yellow wood" I believe it's "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. As I made my loop to head towards home I passed a local farm veterinarian office I had forgotten even existed. He owns a small heard of cattle but these just aren't any cattle, they are what we refer to as "Oreo Cows." Their genetic blueprint determines black for the front and rear thirds separated by a milky white midsection. So I stopped and snapped a few pictures with my iPhone, I really need to get a new camera after my faithful one died last summer.

Something I did notice on my ride was houses. There are many different styles, colors, layouts, landscaping (or lake thereof) and it got me thinking about the kind of house I want someday - not sure yet, but I've got plenty of time. The sad part about the houses were how many For Sale signs I saw. It's a sign the nation isn't out of the woods yet for the financial difficulties. I home people can keep their homes, but I certainly hope everyone learns to buy houses (or anything) they can afford, not what they can buy with credit.

I made it home, put the bike away, thanked God for the safe journey and checked out my pictures and started writing.

By the way, here's a picture of gate, I just like how it turned out with the fly on the top rail.

Catching up...

So let's get things started... My name is Mat

thew, I follow Jesus, I have a wonderful wife, Brandy and work for an IT consulting company, Solution Innovators (And hopefully in that order although it's tough)

I think the inspiration behind trying to write a blog came from reading those of friends, particular, two of them. First, Laura and James are a couple I attended college with and Laura has an unbelievable talent for telling stories. Their blog depicts their life as newlyweds in a inner city neighborhood. Second, is from Adina. I met Adina at a good friend's wedding a couple weeks ago. I had the pleasure of serving Ryan as a groomsman as he did at my wedding. So there we were, standing at the rehearsal and there is a photographer snapping pictures. Not a big deal for a wedding, but Adina had the artist look going and she obviously knew how to handle her camera as she clicked away, yet was seemingly unobtrusive. Anyhow, the next day at the reception she hung out with us at the head table and we got to know her a bit. Anyway, we've become Facebook friends in efforts for me to get a hold of the wedding pictures. I noticed she had a photography blog, and being ever curious about photography I decided to take a look. Sure enough in a true artist fashion, she told her story of traveling throughout Europe with her camera and I was hooked. Take a look at her blog here. Hopefully some day I'll have the extra cash to pickup a nice camera and go to town.

Here's a photo my wife took at what appears to be an awkward moment during the rehearsal. Not a great picture, zoomed in from the back of the church, but it gets the point across.