BrianReese.com

So long 2005. Hello 2006.

In honor of the new year, I suppose this will be a 2005 top 10 things happened in my life.

10. Was rearended by a drunk driver
9. Removed popcorn ceiling texture
8. Discovered that I can use Linux for 90% of my computing activities
7. Almost bought a house
6. No longer working for BestWorks and becoming a contractor
5. Family reunion/road trip
4. IDIDARIDE 2005 50 miles of off-road cycling in N. FL
3. On CBM trip, blowing a tire on the way home
2. Going to NC and building a playground for CBM
1. Rafting in Ocoee, TN with friends

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. I forget what they are after a month so I don’t see the point. This new year will certainly be interesting as I have a lot of things that could be happening.

Merry Christmas

During the Christmas holiday, be sure to remember the reason we share gifts. To commerate God’s gift of his Son to us.

-B

Over the past week or so, I have finally found a good use for my USB memory stick. It just so happens that portable software is seemingly making a come back. Portable software is software that can be installed on a device such as a memory stick and then run from more than one computer with out needing to be installed for each computer.

I have found it quite handy to have a couple of programs and, as I explore the available software, I’m sure I will find more useful stuff. The goal is to build a small library of essential tools. Since the drive is rather small, the binary packages must also remain on the small side.

So far, I have found a program called PStart which is be useful as a launch pad for other programs. It puts an icon in your task bar, you click on it and a menu pops up, much like clicking the start button in MS Windows. Since I work in different computing environments, I have found a simple mp3 player to be a handy tool to use to make a play list and play mp3s either from the drive or from a different disk. Currently, I’m using Zoom Player. I have found the program to do the job well, but a little lacking in the different codecs it supports. I’m looking for a program that can store the codecs on the drive. The idea is to not rely on the host computer having specific software outside the operating system. Finally, I’m using Wiz to pack and unpack .zip files. Just today I needed to unpack a .zip file and the host computer did not have an unzip utility.

It has been almost a month since my last entry. Time seems to have been flying.

Thanksgiving was fun, my brother and his girlfriend stayed in Orlando with me and we cooked up a nice meal. As a matter of fact, some of it is still in the fridge waiting to be eaten.

Since I missed posting on Thanksgiving as I had planned, I will note some things I’m thankful for. I’m thankful for my friends and family, with out them I’d be one lonely guy. I’m grateful for having food and a roof over my head along with plenty of things to make life enjoyable. We often get caught up in what we don’t have and forget we have much more than we really need to survive. Most of all, I’m thankful for God’s gift to us, His Son, Jesus.

Recently I’ve come to realize that thanksgiving is a wonderful precursor to Christmas. It only seems appropriate to give thanks for what God has done for us and what He has provided and to follow that up with a celebration of the ultimate gift.

The title should be the theme of my weekend.

Wow! In many ways, today was a great day. I really enjoy being able to worship “on the floor” instead of “in the booth” and during the prayer service I was not needed in the a/v booth. There were many praises tonight. Several missions teams returned and shared the results of their trips as well as things to pray about. Hearing about missions always hits a soft spot in my soul, as I have great a respect for people who do missions work. The meeting concluded on a weird note, the minister to single adults resigned by letter read by the pastor and then we sang “How Great Thou Art.” I couldn’t really concentrate on the words to that hymn or even sing with heart though, as my mind was spinning from the previous announcement. So I’ll definately keep the career adult ministry in prayer as we have a new leader.

Saturday was a fun day for me. Greg asked me to be the audio engineer on the TMR truck for the Deland band festival. Greg mentioned that last year Mike did a stereo mix of the bands. I was a little skeptical at first b/c of how we were going to set up the mics and my experience with live audio in general but, we went over how it would work and Greg assured me that in the worst case he could mix it down to a mono mix. Once I was able to focus on the mix, and not worry about the wind, I was able to hear the “image” of the mix. I must say that I’m very pleased with the depth of the sound. I was a little surprised at the difference a stereo configureation would make to the overall sound of the mix.

It seems there are some other Brian Reeses out there. I have been contacted by at least two of them. Apparently I’m giving one in Michigan a bad name. So any of you who know the dude in MI, I’m not the same guy. I don’t live in MI or claim to be a pre-law student.

So, who am I?

Well, if you look through my other posts, you’ll find I believe in God and that he loves his creation. You will find that I believe that from the beginning we as mankind have a sinful nature (we desire to live life our way and get what we want out of it) that separates us from God. I believe God sent Jesus to live a human life and suffer death in our place as a provision for our sinful nature. Because of this, our relationship to God can be restored. The only way our fellowship with God can be restored is if we chose to accept God’s gift of salvation through his Son, Jesus Christ. The following Web site states this a little more clearly: www.greatcom.org

By day, I am an application developer. I’m working on specializing in Web application development. I’ve done a couple ASP.net projects in the past and am working on obtaining a Microsoft certification.

In my spare time, I like to ride my bicycle and am currently training to do several long distance rides in Florida. I also like to take pictures and maintain this little Web site.

If reading about my interests entertains you, then keep coming back. Feel free to post comments too. Otherwise, don’t give all the other guys with my name a hard time, I’m only one person.

I was going to write about what I did today but instead I will leave you with these thoughts.

I was driving in my car today, with a mix disc when some older Third Day music came on. I was listening to the Time album in the car, which is one of my favorite Third Day albums but, now that I’m at the computer, I’m listening to Conspiracy No. 5. I think so far every song that has come one speaks to how I feel about some area of my life.
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I was just sitting here reading some friends blogs when I smelled something funny. Then, I realized what it was, I left some pizza in the toaster oven. Well, I will now find out if I like my pizza extra crispy.

In other news, I think I’m going to start targeting Atlanta, GA in my job search. I’m open to other areas as well, but I’m not that well traveled so I’m not sure what other areas I’d like.

It has been a while since I have posted. I have been searching for a job. I had a consulting assignment at UPS but that ended in July and I went back the first week of September to perform some maintenance. I liked things better the second time I was there. I did not feel nearly as pressured to match any of the previous numbers as they have finally agreed that was nearly impossible without the regional office telling me how they got the regional numbers.

This week UCF is hosting a job fair. I’m hoping to make some good contacts there as several larger companies should be present. Tomorrow I should be attending several workshops about how to work a job fair and resume preparation. Hopefully, I will be ready to hit the ground running at the job fair the following day.

I’m also looking at companies that are located outside my home area. I’m a little hesitant with this notion because I would have to make new friends when I move and I’m a generally shy person. I also have not visited very many cities. I’ve been to Atlanta for a week after Christmas and have determined I could live there. I just don’t know where else I would enjoy living.

Jason has thrown the book baton at me. It’s been a few weeks, but I don’t read as much as I used to so it took a while to jog the memory.

Number of Books on the Shelves
About 60 here, who knows how many of my books are in WPB

Last Book Purchased
The Object Oriented Thought Process, Matt Weisfeld

Currently Reading
The Object Oriented Thought Process, Matt Weisfeld

Last 5 Books Read
Food for Fitness, Chris Carmickael
The Five Love Languages for Singles, Gary Chapman
I don’t remember the last 5 books I’ve read, the two above are the most recent.

Meaningful books
The Bible is the most meaningful book I’ve read.

Throwing the Book (Passing it to)
In random order…
germygator
avocadonumber
serein32
karintome
dancingrob