To start, the battery lasts a long time. I can go weeks at a time without charging it. It’s slim, fairly simple to use and easy on the eyes.

UPs:
- Charges your CC without having to login
- Group books together to reduce clutter on the home screen
- Copy PDFs/Books from the computer over to the Kindle
- Free 3G world wide (if you get the 3G version)
- Computer application if you want to read from your laptop/desktop
- Make notes / Bookmark
- Built in dictionary

Downs:
- A bit slow at times
- 3G is not the fastest where I am at.

Overall it was worth the $189 for the Wifi+3G version.

Cozumel, Mexico – 7-8 days on a scuba diving trip
Germany – 3 weeks on a work related trip
New York – 2 weeks on a work related trip
Colorado – 1 week vacation

2010 is no different.

March
Texas – SxSW Festival
Texas(again) – For MOSQ school
and a few other place(s) I won’t talk about at the moment.

Today I got approved for the apartment I was looking at. Tomorrow shortly after drill I am signing the lease. I will be moving in once I get back from Germany in ~3 weeks. It was also my last day working for the school district =(  . Seems odd that it was going on 5 years since I started working there.

Saturday I leave for Germany! Wooo! Hopefully I will have some fun. There are a few things I am not liking so far, but hopefully it will change.

(it will be the 3rd time this week I am in Charlotte.. peachy!)

Hopefully when things settle down I will write a decent blog post.

6 days after I get back from that trip I will be heading to Germany for just under 3 weeks for some National Guard training. I hear its going to be boring, however it will be a great expereince in my opinion. I had to get a Hep-A, Hep-B, and Flu shot as my records were out of date. Then they health department also gave me a tetnis shot because my state records didn’t show it even though the military records did. (bummer dude!)

I applied for an AGR (full time) job with my Guard unit as a Personell Services Delivery Redesign Clerk. Essentially I take work that would happen at the state level and do it here. After a few short weeks I found out I got the job. So I will be moving to Charlotte and starting that job shortly after I get back from Germany. I am really excited for this. Though I will have to reclass my MOS to a 42A (Human Resources). Though, I think this is a good thing so I have no problem doing it.

Unfortunately at this time it is not available in the United States. That does not mean I have not used this application. Hopefully I will get some invites to share.

Spotify Screenshot

Then, today my mom received an email (from my dad I believe) with another gift card of $100 for military families to spend on Christmas stuff at a Sears store. Need decorations? No problem Sears to the rescue. During the holiday season there are many places taking donations and the one that effects my family and I the most are those that do donations to military families. While my family may not need this stuff, there are those that do, and it brings joy especially to the kids of those families.

To which I say thank you Sears and those who made any donations to give family members of deployed soldiers and the soldiers themselves a better christmas. Thank you.

I know several business owners that will talk to me about what they offer and what a competitor offers. They tell me that they would be more then happy for me to buy from them but if I don’t its no big deal. This alone makes me feel good about dealing with the company. I have been up to SASS a few times and the way they have talked to me, I don’t mind driving the hour there to buy from them even though there is a competitor shop 20 minutes away. A marketing style newsletter I get, if they recommend something and use a referral link they tell me they will get a kick back on it. It seems both these companies care about potential clients trusting them.

Then there is DreamHost. These guys crack me up. If you haven’t checked out their blog I recommend you do so. Even when they had that huge screw up with their billing they were pretty funny with their blog posts.

Now, for what inspired this post. Simply a blog post over at the 37Signals blog.

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1351-1-who-the-fuck-designs-this-shit-and-2

“1. Who the fuck designs this shit? And 2. Gotta love the white remote.”

I have to agree with thim. That cd player is hideous. That post inspired me to write this post because on a company blog I would not expect the words “fuck” and “shit” from an employee of the company. To me, that being allowed on their blog, says they could be a fun group of people to work with. I am much more inclined to go with a company that seems to be fun or laid back compared to a company that seems upity. Hell the company I use as a web host has this up.

So, to all of you that own a company, there are people out there who want you to be yourself and be able to sit there and bull shit (talk about stuff) with them. Show that you are on a level with the person looking at buying your product. Yes you know more than I do about your product(s) but you don’t have to make sure that I know that.

I imagine at this point I am just rambling on about something. To that, farewell.

The book is free to read online or you can buy pdf and paperback versions. Im not even getting a kickback as an affiliate on those links. Thats how good it is. Go read it.. No seriously go read it as soon as you are done with this post.

<offtopic> Gas was $3.33 / gallon today. HOLY CRAP </offtopic>

Since I got my phone (back in February) I have been talking on it more and more compared to when I had prepaid. This month figuring out the difference it was actually cheaper for me to have my AT&T plan that it would have been had I still used BoostMobile. We are talking straight talk time not including text messaging or internet. I am not a fan of text messaging but I have started using it here and there.

Just thought I would throw that out there.

I also busted my ass a lot. I volunteered to get on AFATDS when people were going to sleep yet we were still shooting missions. If I wasn’t doing anything important I made sure the guys doing RTO were not on it for a super long time. Most of my days were from 0400 – 0130 (4am – 1am (the next day)). A few of those days I was forced out of our TOC (tactical operations center) to go get some sleep and give someone else a turn.

Wednesday I went down to the gun line of Charlie battery and watched the FDC (same as me) do their jobs when a fire mission came down. This was a first time I had seen real live action of a battery unit processing missions. When I do it, it is at battalion level and there is less stuff to do and manage. While I was down there I got to see the howitzers shoot. OH MY GOD! It was awesome. Going off topic for a second. I watch fireworks to feel the boom and intensity. I don’t know if I will like a fireworks show ever again. The blasts were intensive and great.

Last but not least. From working so hard and people actually noticing it, I got an Army Achievement Medal. One day I will scan the certificate and maybe take a picture of the medal. I am way to tired to do it today.