Patrick Jarrett

Lessons from this Christmas

When we stop learning, we start dying. So here is what my trip to Atlanta has taught me for this Christmas in 2009.

1. Driving to Atlanta from Orlando with a packed car can be miserable and uncomfortable at times.
2. The Jarrett Law of Travel holds: “No matter how far, or how long the trip is, you will find a way to fill up the car.”
3. It takes nearly a whole bottle of Chivas Regal to really get me trashed.
4. I’m pretty awesome at poker when I’m drunk.
5. It takes WaffleHouse’s Steak + Eggs with lots of water to quell the resulting hangover.
6. I love spending time with my family. Mostly.
7. Awkward times are still times with family. Push through them.
8. No one is perfect. But those who are annoying are less perfect.
9. Nieces and Nephews are way too much fun to play with.
10. Always check directions. Don’t trust someone knows where they’re going. Even if that someone is you.
11. It’s the moments in time rather than the things in space which really matter.
12. Vegan food can be yummy. Meat is not required in food. But it is still yummier.
13. There is no greater sport than football.
14. Seeing my mother’s grave will always make me cry. Damn do I miss her.
15. Grandmoms can still kick butt at poker no matter their age.

Much more was learned, and these lessons will give you a snapshot of what happened this trip. I’ll be writing more as time allows. For now it’s off to bed. We’re on the road in 6 hours.

This is Life

I’ve started and stopped dozens of blog posts. Ideas. Ramblings. Musings. None of them being finished. Well here is an overdue update.

My job is a dream. Where as for the past two jobs I have been a cog in the machine with peeks at influence, I’m now truly at the top and I am able to have a say and directly influence the direction for a company and its properties. This is the fulfillment I seek for my professional life.

K and I are doing quite well. We hosted our first Thanksgiving, complete with family from both sides and plumbing problems. We chose to remove Turkey and replace it with Steak. A choice which is questioned by many, but I highly recommend for all. Steak > turkey. Though admittedly also in cost.

And so life goes on. In a few short weeks we’ll be heading to Atlanta for Christmas.

When the Smoke Clears…

photo credit: wsilver

Life has a funny way of rocking the boat at the most inopportune times. To lose my job two days after proposing to my fiancee is something out of a TV show. However, what it turned out to be was a wonderful opportunity to pursue a job damn close to the job of my dreams. No, it is not perfect, but it is awesome.

Katie and I had hardly realized that we have been engaged for a month. We’ve been so distracted with the new life and adjusting to it, that we both realized late in the evening while we were checking out at a Publix.

Distraction is a frustrating thing. So often I get distracted and forget what I was doing or saying. I have been so distracted by my new life that I didn’t realize just how long it had been since I took a leap and snagged the love of my life. And, when the smoke cleared, from it, from the lost job, from the proposal, from the new job and the travel – I realize that I’m extremely happy.

Love is knowing that you can’t live without the other person. And I can’t live without Katie.

The Proposal

I feel like a secret agent who has had his secret identity revealed. As if a weight has been lifted and I am able to finally reveal the Jason Bourne-style secrets to the top secret mission which I have been working on for the past several weeks. So I apologize if I’ve been distracted for the past week or so when we’ve interacted, I’ve been thinking about this a great deal. I had to make sure that this went off without a hitch, and I think I can say “Mission accomplished.”

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Become a Bone-Marrow Donor

My mom was given an extra 9 months on her life through a bone marrow transplant, and with it the potential to continue her life even longer. My mom had a disease called Myelofibrosis where her bone-marrow was slowly being replaced by scar tissue and with it other problems were arising with her health. She had been fighting it for much of my life, and in 2006 she had her bone-marrow transplant. In fact, her transplant took place on July 11th, 2006. It gave us another 248 days with her on this earth, which looking back was very valuable time indeed. Through out the final year and for a few months before, my mom kept a blog online. Something I’ve kept up and managed for her: http://www.jarrett.ws/dale/

Like donating blood and platelets, people can donate their bone-marrow. Bone-marrow transplants (BMTs) are becoming a more routine medical treatment and so the need for an expansive registry is becoming more and more important. I just recently joined the registry, and in doing so I made a five minute video explaining the process (all done from home) to get myself added to the National Bone-marrow Registry.

Quiet Morning

It’s no secret I’m a morning person. I’m usually up at 6am with an outer edge around 8am. It’s something I developed in middle and high school.

The thing is, I love the quiet. My life is bombarded by noise from the tv, online, in my Twitter feed. And in the wee hours the world is silent, allowing me to relax and start my day off right.

The fact of the matter is that I get up early the same reason a lot of programmers work in the wee late hours. It’s undistracted time for me to work on tasks, catch up on the DVR, or just relax.

Last night was an example though of staying up late AND getting up early. K and I went to SAK for a hysterical set of shows, and then went out with our good friend Rob to hang out and get a late night meal at IHOP. So right now I’m running on four hours of sleep. And this is when I curse myself for being an early morning person, though I am about to head out and spend time with my dad so I turn to my top secret answer to tiredness: Red Bull.

A good weekend comes to a close

What makes for a good weekend? Let me lay it out for you because this weekend was pretty good:

1. The Orlando Magic win in a decisive and very strong finish in a six game series to the Cleveland Cavaliers
2. I saw a HYSTERICAL show at SAK on Friday night, a great cast and lots of crazy only-in-improv antics
3. Did yard work and felt satisfied with the progress in the eternal battle with our yard
4. Watched lots of TV on DVD including 30 Rock season 2 (almost finished) and Big Bang Theory season 1, both are hysterically funny shows
5. [censored]
6. Lots and lots of laughing
7. Grilled up some very yummy pork chops
8. Nearly caught up on my Food Network shows from Grill week
9. Got a much needed haircut

A Grownup Budget

For the first time in my life I sat down and did a serious monthly budget. Literally. K and I have finally reached the point where living paycheck to paycheck, building up saving only to empty it out unexpectedly, is unacceptable and we’re dedicated to making this budget work.

Here’s how we did it.

1. Collect information. We saved every grocery receipt since January. We have the bills for all of our utilities and such available so that we can look back and project where the costs will be next month.
2. Organize it on the calendar. First we put all bills due on the calendar for the upcoming months to allow us to see when what is due in relation to when we’re expecting in income.
3. Spreadsheet! We broke out a Google spreadsheet to list every item in income and spending, as well as planning for savings, incidental and unexpected costs, etc.
4. Try it. We’ve laid out our budget in June. We don’t expect it to be perfect but we do expect it to be a start. We’re going to save every receipt in June, count every penny we spend.
5. Evolve. Based on how June goes we’re going to modify it and go again.

We ended the night both excited about the prospect of building a saving and paying off our debts. However, that being said, we both unanimously hate growing up.

Stand by Me

I have been listening to this all week. It’s pretty awesome. I meant to post this last week but it got lost in the ether.

This is a journal

I’ve always had to fight between technological posts and keeping this as my life journal. The fact is that I’m leaning more towards other mediums as my platform. Any technological posts I want to make end up as comments on Hacker News and I sometimes stop to think I could write a blog post about it, but then decide I don’t have enough to make a post on it. More »

My Week in Review

This week is a premiere example of the sort of life I live. I didn’t exactly spend any time at home in the first week in our new house. Let me run you through the week. Strap in, because by the time I finish telling you, you may be as exhausted as I was last night. But exhaustion is not a reason for me to go home and sleep.

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My New Home

I’ve been up for nearly an hour, sitting at my new desk and overlooking the front yard, watching the sun slowly make itself known. On the TV I’ve had SportsCenter and in the bedroom K remains huddled under the comforter looking for some more hours of sleep.

We got moved into the house yesterday, and once again the movers proved to be well worth the money. They did in under 3 hours what it would have taken me, K and our friends and family all day, not to mention countless pains and stresses. My back is sore and I didn’t even have to move the majority of this stuff.

Using the movers allowed K and I to collapse by noon and rest before others came over. Her mom and my dad got to meet finally, and two of our close friends came over to hang out, John helped me put the bed together (though we forgot to tighten up the joints, so I may have to take it apart to tighten it down before tonight.

We got an amazing deal on the house. The rent is definitely lower than it could be, but it’s a sign of the times. I think our landlord wanted to get it rented and bringing in money so it didn’t sit empty for too long. The house has its issues, things like the numerous two pronged outlets and no grounding connector, or the shower door not shutting smoothly, but for our rent and how wonderful the house is – these are small potatoes and we can make it work.

And now, I need to walk Mattie before she explodes.

Making Apologies

One part of keeping lots of balls in the air is that sometimes you drop one, and at times the dropped ball doesn’t just affect you but it affects someone else personally or professionally. And when you screw up, you need to apologize and try to make amends. Best is face to face so they can see you’re sincere and willing to make this contact and try to mend any damage done when you screwed up. If you can’t meet face to face, then do it over the phone. And if you can’t do it over the phone, do it by way of a well thought out and expressive email. More »

A Fitting Week End

This has been a rough week, full of hard work and two days spent with the main client who I do work for at MindComet.

Thursday was one of those days that sums up the sort of life I live. I was up and at work early, arriving close to 7:30am. Then I pushed hard with two other people working over my shoulder, something which is never comfortable and is quite trying.

I then stayed at work an hour late and from there headed directly to film two episodes of ManaNation. Lee, Darren and I knocked out two great episodes for this month, and headed home earlier than expected.

Once home I grilled up two grilled cheeses and then worked on Tritter for another hour and a half. And after midnight I finally turned in, only to wake up again at 6:30.

Steak and Scotch

So Friday night, I did the wonderful. When I left the office around 6:30 I headed to Whole Foods and picked up some necessary elements, New York Strip steaks were on sale so I snagged some real beauties, along with some veggies and mac and cheese, as well as some soy ice cream sandwiches K asked for.

Once home I primed the steaks, rubbing them down with olive oil and sea salt, and letting them sit and raise to room temperature. I put on my recorded episode of Leverage (a great new show on TNT) and poured myself a wonderful glass of scotch. Dewars on the rocks, a rare treat I allow myself after tough days or weeks.

I then proceeded to lay out the game plan and attempt to time it all for when K got off work and arrived home. As I tweeted last night, the secret to a good meal is timing. If you get all the pieces to come out together or at least all be hot when they’re done, then I call that a win. I timed it nearly perfectly, everything was ready at the same time, but unfortunately it took Katie a little longer than expected to leave work and get home, so I left it all warming in the oven.

Oh but once she arrived home, wonderfulness was had. We cuddled, caught up on the DVR and then put in ‘Dark Knight’ for our nightcap.

And then of course my body woke me up at 6:30. *sigh*

Quarter

Today I turn 25.